
Class z^ LcLQj_ 

Book Xa.51- 

Gop\7ight]\° 

COKl-RiGHT DEPOSIT. 



Hither AND Thither 



A COIvIvBCTlON OF COMMENTS ON 
BOOKS AND BOOKISH MATTERS 



JOHN THOMSON 

Librarian of The Free Library of Philadelphia 




PHILADELPHIA 

GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO. 
PUBLISHERS 



1^' 



.<A" 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDies Received 

NOV 28 1905 

^ CoDyriffht Entry 
CLASS OL XXc. No. 

/ 3 XX^6- 

COPY B. 



Copyright by John Thomson 



PUBLISHED NOVBMBKB, 1905 



PHESS OF GEORGE V. BAIRD, PHILADELPHIA 



TO 
MY DEAR WIFE 



Preface. 



My work as a Librarian has given me an opportunity to 
examine a large number of books, many of them rare and 
curious, and others of a general or of a special interest. 
From time to time I have published various comments 
upon some of these volumes, and I am indebted to the 
editors of the Philadelphia Ledger, Press, Inquirer, 
Record, Optimist, and others, for their kind permission to 
reprint some of the articles which have appeared in those 
papers during the past ten years. To these articles I have 
added some which have not hitherto appeared in print. The 
facts which I have recorded may possibly be of use to 
those who have occasion to use reference books in public 
libraries, and if, in addition, this volume shall prove to be 
of service to members of the Library Profession, I shall be 
amply repaid for the labor — ^very pleasant in itself — in- 
curred in its production. 

I am especially indebted to my son, O. E. Howard 
Thomson, for the Index, which he has kindly prepared. 



Contents. 



PAGE 

The Ten Lost Tkibes 3 

The Master of the Rolls Series 13 

Early Chronicles 31 

Botany and Block-Books 41 

British Essayists 53 

A Eew Art Treasures 65 

A Polyglot Psalter 73 

Children's Literature 77 

The Hammurabi Code 89 

Saint Mark's, Venice 97 

Haverford College 107 

Dr. Sommer's "Le Morte Darthur" 115 

Sevres Porcelain 127 

Liturgical Manuscripts 135 

Six "Greatest" Books — 

I. "Of the Imitation of Christ" 147 

IL "The Pilgrim^s Progress" 150 

IIL "The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe". .155 

IV. "Don Quixote" 161 

V. "Utopia" 166 

VI. Eeanklin's "Autobiography" 173 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Fac-Similes of the MAiiTuscRiPTS OF Tacitus 179 

Fac-Similes of Portions of the Works of Ter- 
ence, THE Poet and Dramatist 185 

The Text of the Bible 191 

Mexican Antiquities 209 

The Nuttael Codex 221 

The Breviary of Cardinal Grimani 227 

Saint Margaret's Book of the Gospels 233 

Visiting Cards 239 

Horse-Shoes 219 

Mourning 261 

Friday 275 

Fables 287 

Palestrina's Music 305 

Alexandre Dumas 311 

"Of the Imitation of Christ": Who Wrote It?. .323 

History Repeats Itself 325 

A Plea for Free Libraries 339 

The Value of Reading Fiction 345 

Earnestness a Necessity for Permanence 357 



The Ten Lost Tribes, 



The Ten Lost Tribes. 



IT is somewhat difficult to know Avhether to treat seri- 
ously four "Studies" of "Our Kace,"^ aggregating 
one thousand and fourteen pages in eight volumes, 
published by Chas. A. L. Totten, first lieutenant, Fourth 
Artillery, U. S. A., or to regard them with a feeling 
kindred to that experienced by most readers on a perusal 
of the various "relations" of Swedenborg's, or an exam- 
ination of the wild vagaries of William Blake. Pos- 
sibly, at some not very distant date collectors may be found 
who will value these volumes when discovered in their 
"original paper covers," unbound and uncut, as highly as 
present bibliophiles esteem numbers of the French roman- 
ticists in their original "cheap and nasty" paper 
covers. In speaking of the story of "Our Eace," as told 
by Mr. Totten, there is no necessity to follow the custom of 
novelists, who reserve the conclusion of the plot, till anxiety 
makes an over-excited and impatient reader peep at the last 
few pages to see- how it all ends. We may, without impro- 

^ Our Race. Its Origin and Destiny. A series of Studies on tlie 
Saxon Eiddle. New Haven : Our Eace Publisliing Company, 1891. 
(4 parts 12mo). 



4: IlITIIEK A^G THITIIEE. 

priety, take the conclusion for our starting point and then 
leisurely pick up for recital such points as seem of interest. 

The Anglo-Saxons are the ten lost tribes of Israel. Tliis 
Mr. Totten and "The Saxon Identity Association of 
"America" have ascertained and will preach, whether we 
bear or whether we forbear. The case is proved by piling 
together a mass of figures, which in amount would almost 
equal those used in an astronomical calculation in connec- 
tion with a transit of Venus ; interspersed with a series of 
quoted texts from the Bible, rivalling in number those in a 
three-volume work by Canon Farrar. In support of his 
position, the author indulges in an analysis of a multitude 
of points found in histories of Egypt, ancient America, 
the Aztecs and Ireland ; which, together with a large num- 
ber of overlooked — but as it turns out, "vastly important" 
— nursery rhymes have been ascertained to embody the 
original teachings of projihets such as Jeremiah; and to 
have retained in their popular but somewhat quaint lan- 
giiage the revelations of tlie Almighty as first disclosed in 
prophesy, but filtered down as centuries passed on, to the 
level of the apprehension of our latter day investigators, 
in striking, but decidedly popular forms. 

The points made by Mr. Totten, so far as an ordinary 
reader can follow them, seem to be somewhat as follows: 
All men are now ready not to be surprised at anything, 
and intense expectancy wraps a waiting world ; whence it 
follows, that we may learn without surprise that when 
Frederick III., of Austria, invented his boastful, national 
formula, A. E. I. O. U. (Austria Est Imperare Orbi 
Universe), which, being interpreted, is that Austria is 



THE TEIST LOST TRIBES, 5 

designed to rule the world universal, he miscarried, as 
the motto should have read A. E. I. O. LT. Y. (Angiia Est 
Imperare Orbi Universo Yisraete). This corrects Fred- 
erick, and asserts, "as the truth is," it is for the Anglo- 
Israelites to dominate the universe ; and it also solves the 
mystery which surrounds the fortunes of the lost ten tribes 
of Israel v/ho ever since 1721 B. C, the date of their final 
deportation into Media, have remained hidden and undis- 
coverable. The theories that have hitherto found favor 
with various \^anters on "Unfulfilled Prophecy" are all 
brushed on one side, while the idea that the Jews are the 
Jews, and nobody else, is scouted. Contrariwise Mr. 
Totten and his co-thinkers are satisfied that the Jews whom 
we know and recognize as such, are descendants of Judah, 
but that the bulk of their nation, the descendants of Israel, 
exist in a separate form, who after the reign of Zedekiah 
betook themselves to Ireland, "a place provided by Jere- 
"miah" from whence they worked their way via Scotland 
down to London, in which place all the tribes gathered 
themselves under the title of the Heptarchy, or "if 
"Manasseh is included," tlie Octarchy. Of these tribes, 
seven apparently remained in Great Britain and are now 
John Bull; whilst the eighth, as Brother Jonathan, ran 
"over the wall," or, as it is explained, went to America, so 
that England and America between them share the privi- 
lege of being the missing tribes. 

These "facts" are proved because the Bible says, 
texts being quoted in confirmation of the assertion, that 
Israel must be a Sabbath-keeping race, and no countries 
but England and the United States meet this requirement; 



6 HITHER ATv^D THITHEK. 

but, more conclusively, Israel must have a State Church, 
which Britain has, and Manasseh has not. The meaning 
of the name Manasseh, "who makes to forg-et," is signifi- 
cant, yet America does what is next best, "recog- 
"nizes religion," for argues Mr. Totten, though it 
is often claimed "that God is not mentioned in 
"the Constitution," yet the very ratification of that 
document "in the year of our Lord," etc., is "a tacit refuta- 
"tion" of the statement. Moreover, Israel was directed to 
write the Commandments on the walls of their national 
church, and it is urged that this custom was undoubtedly 
followed in the eighteenth century in a large numl)er of the 
Church -warden-ruled churches of England, but not in 
"Catholic or Continental churches." Lastly, or rather 
pre-eminently, tlie Israelites must be addicted to the vice of 
drunkenness, for so Isaiah had described them, and as 
Mr. Totten points out, the Saxons "drink like a fish." In 
all the author enumerates sixty-eight "identities," but as 
he found, our space "simply fails to prosecute this subject 
"further." The point that has been overlooked by general 
students of histoiy is that Zedekiah's daughter Tea Tephi, 
the sole surviving lineal descendant of David, settled do\\Ti 
at Tara, having carried thither the "wonderful stone" 
which traveled from Tara to Dunstaffnage, from Dunstaff- 
nage to Scone, and from Scone to London, where it was 
fitted in the Coronation Chair, still extant in Westminster 
Abbey; whereon the sovereigns of England, down to and 
inclusive of King Edward VII., have been seated at their 
coronations. These truths are much enhanced in value, 
when we call to mind that we find the harp in Ireland 



THE TElSr LOST TEIBES. i 

ringing in the halls of Tara, as proved by Tom Moore's 
well-known poem, and that the cockney is still pursued by 
the stumbling of Ephraim's tongue over the letter H — 
"shibboleth" is still a stumbler in the mouth of every 
Londoner born within the sound of Bow-bells. 

The full name of "our heroine," as the daughter of 
Zedekiah is styled in these volumes, was Tea Tephi, 
familiarly signifying Tender Twig; and on the proof that 
she w^ent to Ireland and from Tara came forth, in the 
manner above indicated, rests the whole superstructure oJI 
these studies. It is claimed that Irish chronicles are 
redundant with references to Jeremiah, for firstly, not only 
has his bust a place of honor upon Dublin's Capitol ; but 
secondly, his grave has been shoA^^l from time immemorial 
in tlie Isle of Davenish, Lough Erne ; and thirdly, a wide- 
spread tradition exists that the gigantic individual who 
built the Giant's Causeway 

Fin McCool went to school 
With the prophet Jeremiah! 

And a well-known Irish couplet tells us 

There's not a hut the Isle around 
But where a Jerry may be found. 

It was from the great veneration for the Queen Tea 
Tephi herself, who became "the Queen of the Welsh as well 
"as of the Irish," that the Welsh as a people became kno^\ai 
as Taphs or Taffies, and the way in which Judah's 
monarchy vanished is preserved in the poem, 



8 HITHER AND THITHER. 

Taffie was a Welshman 

Taffie was a thief; 
Taffie came to my house 

And stole my piece of beef. 

I went to Taffie's house 

But Taffie wasu't home, 
For Taffie was at my house 

And stole my marrow bone. 

It is pointed out that the sobriquet Taffie is "usually 
"derivecr' from David, or, in the Hebrew, beloved. Tephi, 
the beloved, was herself the daughter of David, so becom- 
ing the very beloved of the beloved, she was in very sooth 
the "marrow bone" or last hope of the kingdom, or as one 
may say, "beef" of Ephraim ; that is to say, of "a heifer," 
or in other words, of the ten lost tribes. From this close 
reasoning we pass on to quote two "final proofs deduced 
"from folk-lore." First, the story of "Jack and Jill," 
which exactly illustrates the successive fates which befell 
the crowns of Israel and Judah ; and second, if further 
evidence is needed, the story of "Jack Horner." The 
very gist and philosophy of Israel's present favored circum- 
stances among the nations of the earth, is condensed, as it 
were, into a nutshell, in the well-known rhyme ; — 

Little Jack Horner 
Sat in the corner 

Eating a Christmas pie; 
He put in his thumb, 
And drew out a plum, 

Saying, what a big bo^' am I ! 

Texts are given in Mr. Totten's pages to justify the 
adjective "little" and the concealed identitv of the Anglo- 



THE TEIST LOST TEIBES. V 

Saxon race in the name "Jack Horner," and to prove, as 
promised in the Bible, that Israel is to be called in Isaac's 
name, which finally came to be recognized as being the 
same word as Saxon. The line "sat in a corner" distinctly 
refers to the Angle-land, or in French, Angle-terre, the 
Corner Land, as is verified by nine qnoted and other 
unquoted texts, which are set out in a note. That no 
nation "does or can keep Christmastide as Saxons do," 
lends a vim to the forcible line "eating a Christmas pie ;" 
and, as it is a simple truism that the "hand is an emblem of 
"might and the thumb is the strength thereof," the pru- 
dence of the folklorist in recording that Jack Horner "put 
"in his thumb," almost necessarily leads to the conclusion 
that he "drew out a plum," even did not Mr. Totten find an 
appropriate text in St. Matthew's Gospel, beside two texts 
in the first book of Samuel, a fourth in the second book of 
Samuel and yet a fifth in the first book of Chronicles, which 
all confirm the statement made in the rhyme. The use of 
the word "big-" in the last line is apologized for. It is 
contracted from beichog, beichiwag, burdened, loaded, 
"pregnant ;" as Webster says, "Pregnant as with something 
"portentous;" and while its ancient meaning was full of 
"Josephetic signification," as shown in several quoted 
texts, it is only in these latter times that it has obtained 
"a baser value." Should any link in the above chain of 
deductions break down, a connecting link may be picked 
up through Hamutal, "who seems to have been the 
"prophet's only child;" and with reference to whom 
"sufiicient data" exist to show that she intermarried 
with the Kings of Denmark, who will be found in 



10 



HITHER AND TniTITER. 



time, to be male descendants of David himself. Two out- 
looks are therefore offered ; one in the Danish line and tho 
other in Queen Victoria's grandchild, i>opularly known as 
the "Duff Princess," whereby the victory to our race, as 
promised by "this Ra ! this Ra ! of Tara," may be secured 
to the Anglo-Saxon people when one hundred and fifty- 
three shall have sat on the throne seat of our rulers. 
Inasmuch as Queen Victoria was the one hundred and 
fiftieth descendant in the direct line from Adam, therefore 
her little granddaughter, above mentioned, "is the one 
"hundred and fifty-third," and probably last of the "Great 
"Fishes" to be gathered into the net (see the last chapter 
of the Gospel according to St. John). With her reign, 
when it comes to pass, great things may be looked for. 
One thing alone seems quite clear from these studies, that 
the best that can be done is to wait in patience for further 
developments. 

The author mentions that three and one-half years were 
consumed in a pilgrimage with his manuscripts from pub- 
lishing house to publishing house ; and that his scries of 
studies had been successively offered to, and more or less 
promptly been rejected by, many houses, ten of which are 
named, including the Century Co., Messrs. Harpers, 
Messrs. Porter & Coates, Scribners, and Cassells; but he 
himself has printed them, and "living or dead, he will 
"calmlv await the issue." 



The Master of the Rolls Series. 



The Master of the Rolls Series. 



In advocating a knowledge of tlie two hundred and fifty 
odd volumes forming the "Roll Series/'^ I am by no means 
advising a study of new books, and in no sense would 
these be the new^est of books to most readers. They 
might, in one sense, almost be called "Incunabula," except 
for the reason that their printing is recent. They are a 
series of chronicles and memorials, the latter comprising 
letters, poems, and similar literary products embrac- 
ing the period from the earliest time of British history 
do^vn to the end of the reign of Henry VII., or about the 
year 1500. They are published under the direction of 
the Master of the Rolls, (a Judge of the Court of Chan- 
cery, England, ) as a national undertaking. The issue was 
proposed as long since as 1822; but it was not until 1857 
that the Master of the Rolls obtained the sanction of the 
Treasury to the proposal. 

These books can never be of general use to any but spe- 
cial students, until a descriptive catalogue, or catalogue 

1 The Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland dur- 
ing the Middle Ages ; published by the authority of tlie Lords Com 
missioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, under the direction of the Mas- 
ter of the Eolls. London, 1858, etc.. 
13 



14 HITHER AND THITHER. 

ralsonne, witli a complete subject and biographical index 
is prepared. Many of them relate to abbeys; many 
are like John Capgrave's Chronicle, and profess to 
give the history of the world from the time of Adam to 
the date on which the chronicle was written. With a para- 
graphical index to these, we could find out what each of 
these books contains upon any particular point. Is^ow it 
is a matter of grave research. By way of instance, take a 
book, popularly known, such as the ^'Xuremberg Chroni- 
'^'cle," and consider how impossible it is to find out what it 
contains on any one particular matter for want of indexes.^ 

The works in the "Master of the Rolls Series," being 
selected and issued in no chronological order, the catalogue 
and index I advocate becomes, therefore, still more neces- 
sary. 

Unfortunately, no translation of any treatise in Latin 
has been given, although it was ordered that translations 
of any language but Latin, such as French, Anglo-Saxon or 
Norman French, might be given. This defect has been 
partially overcome by means of elaborate intro<;luctions 
giving an outline of these works, under the title of ''Intro- 
eductions," accompanied by glossaries of the more unusual 
mediawal and low-Latin words. To those who have dipped 
pretty freely into these volumes, a confident appeal can be 
made to confirm the statement, that there is as much 
interesting matter to be found in a large num- 
ber of these volumes as there is in some of the 
best known and most widely read biographical and 
historical books. 

^ Though the Chronicle has what is termed an index, alphabetically 
arranged, it is practically nothing more than a table of contents. 



THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS SERIES. 15 

I do not mean to say that there are no uninteresting 
volumes ; but, if the Introductions had been printed as 
important articles in the leading magazines, there is hardly- 
one that would not have met with perusal and approval 
from a very large number of general readers. The reviews 
of these volumes in the princi])al literary magazines like 
The Athenceum, The Spectator, etc., enable persons to form 
some idea of their valuable contents ; and it will be noticed 
that hundreds of references to these volumes are made in 
the "authorities" quoted, at the end of the principal arti- 
cles in "The Dictionary of I^ational Biography," showing 
the importance and value of the manuscripts rescued from 
oblivion by this important work of the British Government. 

Works of this class are of comparatively small value 
where general indexes do not appear. Of what use would 
Notes and Queries be but for the general index to each 
series of twelve volumes ? And en passant, how much 
better it would be if these numerous indexes of each 
twelve volumes were incorporated into one ? 

How seriously are the "Jahrbiicher" of the Berlin and 
Austrian national libraries handicapped, by the want of 
general indexes! However, till the day comes when Lord 
Campbell's threatened punishment shall be inflicted, we 
can only "hope" for better things. Lord Campbell, in a 
judgment on some copyright matters, stated that, if he 
had his will, any publisher who published a book without 
a proper index should go without any payment for his 
volumes, and the editor should be imprisoned. This 
would, of course, have been drastic, but would, probably, 
have been effective. 



16 HITHER AXD TllITlIEK. 

Turning to the books themselves, let ns examine three 
or four, to see what knoAvledge we can gain of the condition 
of science in early days ; to wonder at the amount of biblio- 
graphical knowledge to be found in the series ; and to enjoy 
reading about discoveries and beliefs, seriously pro- 
pounded and entertained, a thousand years ago. 

Take the case of Friar Roger Bacon, who lived from 
1214 — 1292 or 1294. Only two or three of the numorous 
works of this very remarkable man had been well known 
till Mr. Brewer's edition of the "Inedited Works of 
"Bacon"^ was commenced ; yet, Leland names thirty and 
Bale enumerates eighty different works written by this 
man whose erudition earned him the title of '^Mirabilis 
"Doctor." Bacon Avas a Franciscan monk and a master of 
Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and apparently of Arabic, also. 
He wrote on science, mathematics, mechanics, optics, 
chemistry, chronology, physics, and astronomy. His 
writings on geography were sufficiently important to 
be included by Hakluyt in his collection of "Voyages;" 
and to Bacon has been attributed, more or less exclusively, 
the invention of gunpowder, the telescope, and spectacles. 

As might be expected from the age in which he lived, 
charges of magic and an undue study of judicial astronomy 
and alchemy were brought against him ; and very serious 
wore the lalxjrs put upon him by Po]ie Clement IV., who 
required him to send to His Holiness some of his works. 

In the same way that it would be incredible, if it were 
not a fact, that Handel composed his oratorio of "The 

* "Opus Tertium," "Opus Minus," etc., of Roger Bacon. Edited 
by J. S. Brewer, 1859. (Rolls Series 15.) 



THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS SERIES. 17 

"Messiah" within the period of a calendar month, it would 
seem impossible that Bacon should have prepared and 
transcribed for the Pope within fifteen or eighteen months 
his Opus Majus, Opus Minus, and Opus Tertium. Such 
a feat is imparalleled in the annals of literature ! 

In the "Dictionary of Il^ational Biography," Professor 
Adamson stated that one of the most valuable recent 
studies of Bacon is Brewer's "Preface" prepared for this 
Series. In working up Bacon as a study, the majority of 
persons would seek biographies and similar books ; not 
knowing that in the "Rolls Series" is to be foimd, probably. 
the best review yet written. 

According to popular ideas, Roger Bacon was little more 
than a dabbler in black-art. He it was who discovered 
that, if he could make a brazen head to speak and hear it 
speak, he could wall around England with brass to his 
eternal glory. With the assistance of a conjurer-friar 
and one of worse origin, Bacon could only learn it would 
speak "within a month." Bacon watched for three weeks 
till, worn out, he sent a servant to watch while he slept. 
The image spoke : "Time is," and after half-an-hour's 
silence said: "Time was," and after a second half-hour's 
space said : "Time is past," and then exploded. The care- 
less servant reviled it each time it spoke, and made merry 
wdth jests ; but he never took the trouble to v/ake his master 
"for those few words," and Bacon was "undone." The 
servant was struck dumb for one month by way of x>un- 
ishment. 

Leland, the antiquary, says it is easier to collect 
the leaves of the Sybil than the titles of the works written 
by Roger Bacon. 



18 IIITIIEII AND TIUTIIER. 

A mass of information lias been gathered from the 
works of Gerald du Barry^ — or, as he is generally kno%vn, 
Giraldus Camhrensis. lie lived throngh the reign of 
Henry II., the period of Socket's murder, the conquest 
of Ireland, the reign of Richard I., the reign of John, 
when JSTormandy was lost to England, and the beginning 
of the reign of Henry III. The church was his predilec- 
tion; his father used to call him "little bishop." His 
works are comprised in eight volumes of the "Rolls 
"Series;" and the Genuna Ecclesiastica, or "The Jev>^el of 
"the Church," is there printed for the first time. It is a 
remarkable book, giving a picture of the Welsh clergy in 
the thirteenth century, that would be looked for elsewhere 
in vain. The work is full of interesting anecdotes ; but, of 
course, many are quite incredible. He detested an unedu- 
cated clergy, and illustrates it by humorous anecdotes — 
as where a priest promised a bishop two hundred eggs, 
and, giving his promise in Latin, said he would send 
"ducentas oves" (200 sheep), meaning "ducenta ova." 
The bishop held him to his promise. 

In 1188, Archbishop Baldwin preached the Crusade, 
and the King sent him into Wales for this purpose. The 
archbishop produced little effect till he bade Giraldus do 
the preaching. Then, although he sjwke in French and 
Latin, which the people did not understand, such crowds, 
we are assured, came to take up the cross that the arch- 
bishop was almost pressed to death, and compelled the 

^The Works of Giraldus Canibrensis. Vols. I-IV, edited by J. S. 
Brewer. Vols. V-VII, edited by James F. Dimock. Vol. VllI, 
edited by George F. Warner. 1861-1891. (Rolls Series 21.) 



THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS SERIES. 19 

archdeacon (Giraldiis), to pause for a time. Giraldns was 
a remarkable man ; and in liis writings will be f oimd 
accounts of the reforms then needed in the lives of mem- 
bers of the monastic orders. Humorous stories are told, 
as of the abbot who wanted more privileges for his mon- 
astery, and entertaining Henry 1. unawares, made him 
drink nearly through the night. When the abbot was sent 
for on the following day, the king made use of the terms of 
pledging that the abbot had used over night, and finally 
conceded his wishes. It must have been a happy occasion, 
but is probably fictitious. In his energy, the writer 
describes many of the Cistercian monks as men imbued 
with groveling propensities of avarice. It is hard to think 
this of the men who gave to England Tintern, Furness, 
Fountains and ISTetley. 

Another book which will afford great interest to the gen- 
eral reader is entitled "Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and 
"Starcraft of Early England."^ It is in three volumes, 
and illustrates the history of science in Great Britain 
before the I^orman Conquest. Through it we obtain a 
curious insight into the study and use of herbs for the cure 
of so many addles (or ailments), that the leeches might 
have said to their patients as the French quack doctors 
said of their remedies— "Take them, ladies and gentlemen, 
"in all security ! They can do you no harm, and may do 
"you some good!" There are many yoimg and middle- 
aged lovers v/lio would be glad to find effective the proper- 
ties said to attend the use of waterwort, which is good, 

^Leechdoms Wcrtcunnins; and Starcraft of Early England. Vols. 
I-III, edited by T. Oswald Cockayne, 1864-1866. (Rolls Series 35.) 



20 311TJ1EE AND TIIITIIEE. 

we are told, for ladies whose beauty is damaged by 
swellings, or for men whose success in wooing is 
impeded by their baldness. Orbicularis was found to be 
good if a man's hair fell out, or if he had a ''disturbance 
"in the inwards." By use of this remedy, his baldness was 
cured and his stomach-ache relieved ; but, should this fail, 
there was a Saxon remedy for baldness as follows: "In 
"case that a man's hair fall off, take juice of the wort 
"which one nameth nasturtium and another names cress, 
"put it on the nose, and the hair will grow." Details are 
not given. 

In the account of the manners and customs of the time, 
the book shows that the Saxons were able to get a very fair 
share of comfortable food; that cookery was not wholly 
contemptible ; and that they had an abundance of fruits, 
ales, and beers, home and foreign ; and it is encouraging to 
know that at that time they had feather-beds with bolsters 
and pillows. It is undoubtedly true that there was a 
vast deal of superstition mixed up with the remedies that 
were proposed for various troubles. Thus, for "flying 
"venom," the sufferer was directed on some Friday to 
chum butter not mineled with water and sins: over it nine 



times a litany, nine times the Paternoster, and nine times 
an incantation, quoted and said to be Gaelic, but which is, 
undoubtedly, gibberish. For certain illnesses or addles, 
after Credos, Patemostcrs and Psalms, finally the leech 
and the sick man were required to si]i thrice of the drink. 
How much improved many of the medicines given to-day 
would be if our doctors Avere compelled to drink thrice 
with us ! How nice black drauuhts would taste thereafter ! 



THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS SERIES. 21 

A wonderful recipe for tlie cure of a lunatic practically 
continued in English madliouses from that date until long 
after George III., was king. The remedy was to take the 
skin of a mere-swine or a porpoise, work it into a whip, 
swinge the man therewith, and "soon he will be well. 
"Amen !" Smile as we may at tJiese prescriptions, in days 
to come, probably there will be equally small respect for 
some of the remedies much applauded and approved at 
the present day. 

A cursory reference should be here made, to a volume 
entitled the "Chronicle of the Abbey of Evesham;"^ for, 
undoubtedly, from that book and one or two of similar 
purport, a remarkable insight has been gained into the 
daily life and occupations of that and similar great institu- 
tions. It must never be overlooked, in reading these books, 
that there is a great distinction between the different kinds 
of monks. The majority of the monks of that period, had 
to attend to the temporal matters of the monasteries, and 
were not priests and not concerned with the carrying on of 
religious offices of the Church ; so that many of the doings, 
sayings and habits of monks, which, from the satires of sar- 
castic writers, have been heaped upon the members of 
the orders, are due only to the members of the secu- 
lar orders. Secular monks who had to look after 
the property and attend to the provisioning of the monas- 
teries, often incurred the hostility of the nobles and feudal 
authorities in the same neighborhood ; but the generous 
defense of the poor villeins and others, shown by these 

^Chronicon Abbatite Evesliamensis. Edited by W. D. Macray, 
1863. (Rolls Series 29.) 



22 HITHER AXD THITHER. 

monks in times of distress, won for them nnich popnlar 
love and a generons overlooking of many complaints which 
were alleged — sometimes with great justice, but more fre- 
quently from the bitterness of one order against another, 
or one monastery against a rival institution. 

Evesham had great periods of trouble, and has almost 
entirely vanished from existence. The al)bcy church, with 
its sixteen altars, its one hundred and sixty-four gilded 
pillars, and the chapter-house, library, cloistei*s, refectory, 
dormitory, buttery, and accommodation for eighty-nino 
religious inmates, with sixty-five servants, were, with few 
exceptions, ruins even in tlie time of Shakespeare. The 
sudden and violent dissolution of an important abbey like 
this must have produced great wretchedness on the poor 
and industrious inhabitants who surrounded the buildings. 
To have its principal revenues seized by a despot, was a 
poor exchange for the work the religious house had accom- 
plished. There was no town of Evesham before the foun- 
dation of the abbey. The benevolence of the religious 
house was systematic and uniform. While the abbey stood, 
there was an annual disbursement there, v/hich has been 
computed to be equal to £80,000 of present English money. 
More than one hundred and fifty inmates of the monastery 
were turned loose on the world ; and half the population of 
the town of Evesham was reduced to grave distress upon its 
abolition. 

It is interesting to study tliis chronicle and see what 
was being done, and how that which was done was accom- 
plished. In The Contemporary Beview^ there is an 

* Contemporary Review, Vol. V, 1867, page 304 et seq., by George 
G. Perry. 



THE MASTER OP THE JROLLS SEEIES. 23 

accoiHit of the "Troubles of a Medispval Monastery," 
which makes interesting reading; especially as its writer 
takes a hostile view of the benefits of the monastery, 
and thinks that abolition was brought on by its own 
actions. Having obtained a view of both sides of the ques- 
tion, turn again to the chronicle itself, and then judge 
whether those, who regard the suppression of the monas- 
teries by ll&nrj VIII., and the manner in which it was 
done, as one of tlie m:ost serious wrongs accomplished by 
even that remarkable King, are not justified in coming to 
that conclusion. 

The chronicle is almost biographical. It gives the his- 
tory of the institution from 690 to 1418, makes us 
acquainted with the inner daily life of this abbey, and is 
interspersed with many notices of general, personal and 
local history. 

Another of the most interesting of all the volumes is a 
prose work by Alexander ]S[eckam and a poem by the 
same author.^ It is necessary only to call attention to the 
prose work on the natures of things — "De I^aturis 
"Rerum." This work was written about six hundred and 
fifty years ago, and is here-and-there on the same lines as 
Pliny's "jSTatural History," but more amusing. 

E'eckam suffered a good deal from puns made on his 
name, some calling him ISTequam (or wicked) ; and at that 
period, apparently, "qu" in Latin was pronounced as "k," 
so when he applied for admission to the order of the Cis- 
tercians, he asked in Latin if he might come, to which a 

^Alexandri Neckam de Naturis Rerum libri duo; with Neckam's 
Poem, De Laudibus DivintB Sapientise. Edited by Thomas Wright, 
1863. (Rolls Series 34.) 



24 IIITHER AND TIIITHER. 

Latin answer was sent, saying: "If yon are good, you may 
"come, but if you are N'eqnam (wicked) nequaquam !" 
which could be very freely translated at the presout day 
"nixie." He was so much offended that he joined another 
order. 

This edition of his works illustrates again the necessity 
for a general index. To make the best use of the volume 
under discussion, a reader would have to consult the Deeds 
of the Abbots of the monastery of Saint Alban,^ the Annals 
of Tewkesbury,- the Annals of Dunstable,-'^ the Annals of 
Worcester Monastery,^ and Hardy's Catalogue,^ all in 
the "Rolls Series." ISTeckam states his object to have 
been to collect a quantity of known facts, and to treat 
of them morally. He draws a moral from every fact 
of natural history — some much more extended tlian, and 
many of them as queer as, the morals of rEsop's "Fables." 
He carries the metliod of finding meanings in words, which 
was so popular in mediaeval writings, to an extreme degree. 

He finds, for instance, that "cadaver," the Latin for a 
corpse, is reall}' a gathering together of the first syllables 
of three other Latin words — "caro," "data," "vennibus," 
these three words meaning "flesh given to worms;" hence, 
cadaver is a corpse, to which explanation are appended 
various morals. 

The construction of the book itself, is very curious. The 

' Chronica Monasterii S. Albani. Vols. I-VII, edited bv Henry 
Thomas Riley, 18G3-1876. (Rolls Series 28.) * ' 

^='*Annales Monastici. Vols. I-V, edited by Henry Richards 
Luard, 1804-18G9. (Rolls Series 36.) 

=* Descriptive Catalogue of ilanuscripts, Relating to the History of 
Great Britain and Ireland. Vols. I-III, by Thomas Duffus HaVdv. 
1862-1871. (Rolls Series 26.) 



THE MASTER OF THE EOLLS SERIES, 25 

first part, the bulk of the work, consists of a "Manual of 
"Science," as same was then known, and which nndonbt- 
edly might be designated after the dictum "Science falsely 
"so-called." However, it was the best they knew, and no 
doubt, was as valuable in the eyes of those who then lived, 
as is much of the science of the present day; the outcome 
of which, in the eyes of the inhabitants of the earth many 
years hence, may be regarded with considerable amuse- 
ment. 

In JSTeckam is found the earliest allusion we have to the 
popular legend of the "man-in-the-moon." There is a pretty 
nearly contemporaneous mention of it in an old English 
song edited for the Percy Society, and printed by Kitson. 
This legend is introduced by ISTeckam after a long series 
of his ov/n speculations on the spots on the moon. JSTeckam 
adds moralizations that God has placed spots on the moon 
that, as the celestial body nearest to the earth, it might be 
a sign to man that he also, retains spots in his nature, 
contracted from the "prevarication in our first parents." 

He excels Pliny on the anecdotical side. He says the 
wren, though the smallest of birds, is called the Regulus, 
or King of Birds, because when the birds assembled to 
choose a king, it was agreed that the throne should be given 
to the bird which mounted highest towards Heaven, The 
wren hid itself beneath the wing of an eagle, and when the 
eagle, far above all birds, made its claim to the prize, the 
wren started from its hiding-place, perched on the eagle's 
head, and claimed to be the highest and therefore, the 
winner. 

In our favorite oyster, l^eckam finds an emblem of 



26 HITHER AND TIIITirER. 

monastic life. Within the shcl], it is safe ; wlicn it opens 
tlie shell, it becomes a prey to the crab and its other 
enemies; therefore, it is conclnsive that a monk is safe 
while he stops at home within the walls of his convent, bnt 
if he goes out, he is exposed to all the snares of the Evil 
One. 

Imitation of good things is desirable, bnt imitation may 
be carried too far. An ape imitated a shoemaher, and 
every day, as soon as the shoemaker went from his stool, 
the ape took his tools and made havoc with the leather and 
strings by trying to imitate the shoemaker. The shoe- 
maker finally took a knife and repeatedly drew the broad 
back across his throat, and then sharpened the other side 
to a razor-like degree. When he went to dinner, the 
ape commenced with drawing the knife across his throat, 
and imitation proved destruction. 

Sir Edward Jones and others have written elaborate 
articles as to the origin of chess. If these learned writers 
had looked to ISTeckam, they would have aseertnincnl that 
the game was invented by Ulysses. 

A dog is a faithful creature. A media?val British 
sailor had a dog so faithful, that he learned to manage the 
ropes with his mouth at the orders of his master, and once 
saved him in time of great peril. 

Among his stories, we are told that the hawk seizes the 
first i>iece of warm plumage on which it can lay claw, lies 
on it all night, and in return for its service refrains from 
breakfasting on it in the morning. 

In many things, says Roger Bacon, writing on Xeckam, 



THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS SERIES. 27 

he wrote what was true and useful. He neither has nor 
ought to have any title to be reckoned an authority. 

Many funny things in this series are apt to be overlooked 
for want of indexes — for instance; the letters of some 
Spanish ambassadors, who were sent to examine and report 
on the features of a proposed queen to one of the kings, 
but whose description of the length of her nose made the 
king resolve that he would have none of her. 

Pecock'sEepressor^ gives a mass of information as to the 
Lollards, otherwise unprocurable; and if information is 
desired about Becket, the Series contains seven volumes,^ 
elaborately and carefully edited, entirely snperseding the 
eight volumes edited by Dr. J. A. Giles, and published in 
the Bohn edition. But here again, much information about 
Becket, not in these seven volumes is given in Magnusson's 
elaborate preface to Thomas Saga,^ as well as in the vol- 
umes of Gervase of Canterbury^ and Ealph de Diceto.^ 

^ The Repressor of over much Blaming of the Clergv. By Reginald 
Pecock. Vols. I-II, edited by Churchill Babington, 1860. (Rolls 
Series 19.) 

- Materials for the History of Thomas Becket. Vols. I- VI, edited 
by James Craigie Robinson; Vol. VII, edited by Joseph Brigstocke 
Sheppard, 1875-1885. (Rolls Series 67.) 

^ Thomas Saga Erkibyskups. A life of Archbishop Thomas Becket 
in Icelandic. Vols. I-II, edited with English translation, notes and 
glossary by M. Eirikr Mag-nfisson, 1875-1884. (Rolls Series 65). 

* Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbviry. Vols. I-II, edited 
by William Stubbs, 1879-1880. (Rolls Series 73.) 

^ Radulfi de Diceto Decani Lundoniensis Opera Historica. Vols. 
I-II, edited by William Stubbs, 1876. (Rolls Series 68.) 



Early Chronicles, 



Early Chronicles. 



THE larger and the more rapidly a public library 
grows, the more difficult it is for onlookers to 
apprehend, how much it is used and in wha1; 
multitudes of ways it serves to educate and promote the 
well-being of the citizens, in whose midst it is placed. To 
persons who frequently traverse a thickly-wooded district, 
many and various paths rapidly become more and more 
familiar ; but the more nmnerous the paths, the more diffi- 
cult it is for a stranger to find his way through the ramifi- 
cations of the forest. So it is with a library. It is a 
thickly-packed series of book-shelves, and the volumes, 
from their very numbers, compel persons to make a careful 
study of the collections, or to altogether fail in making 
the best use of the lines of books, arranged for the promo- 
tion of knowledge and the eiijoyment of the thousands who 
desire to consult them. 

The history of tlie creation and the development of the 

Free Library of Philadelphia, has been told in its own 

annual reports, and through the courtesy of the press has 

been related to general readers in many ways. It has had 

31 



32 HITHER AND TlllTlIER. 

a very rapid growth. It is little more tlian ten years old ; 
but already there are in the Free Library itself and ita 
branches, nearly two hundred and seventy thousand >'ol- 
umes, access to which is free to every citizen. The far 
greater number of tlicse volumes can be taken out of the 
library buildings for home perusal. The others can be 
consulted during twelve hours of every day, by all persons 
who desire to do so. 

Representatives of every class in life ; members of evei*y 
profession ; students, book worms and mere seekers f oi 
amusement, daily visit the Library, and find on the open 
shelves books on whatever topic they desire information. 

From 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 volumes are taken out each 
year by readers, and of these a vast majority have a justi- 
fication for perusal. One may be a hard-headed volume on 
penology, but the moving cause for taking up such a study 
may have been the novel, Marcus Clarke's "His I^atural 
"Life," detailing, the frightful story of Van Diemen's 
Land, wdien it was reduced to a hell upon earth by the mis- 
doings of a few men, "drest in a little brief authority," 
and the need for the work done by Mrs. Fry and those who 
labored in the British Parliament, for the amelioration of 
prison conditions. 

The perasal of a book of fiction, which should rather be 
called a sociological study, frequently results in important 
subjects being studied seriously. It is a hundred to one 
that the person taking out' either or both Robert Buchanan's 
"Shadow of the Sword," and Hugo's "Les Miserables,'' 
w'ill become more or less a student of Xapoleoniana. The 
effect of Napoleon's ambition and of his conscriptions, as 



I 



EARLY CHEONICLES. 33 

told in the one, and the story of Waterloo, as told in the 
other, set persons to thinking, and put them on the road to 
a good course of reading. 

Just as soon as theatre bills announce the produc- 
tion of some play presenting historical characters, or 
founded on historical events — for instance, "Charlotte 
"Corday," "Robespierre" or "Michael Strogoff" — just so 
soon is there a great demand for biographies of the persons 
made the subjects of the plays, or for books relating to the 
history of the country or the period brought into relief. 

These are some of the lines of books, or paths in the 
forest of literature, which are very easily explained and 
understood; but let us consider rather, the lines of study, 
amusement and useful knowledge, which can be^ pursued 
by any who will accept a little help from those working in 
libraries, and so ascertain what mass of material lies at 
their disposal. 

How is a history written ? We read a history of this 
country or of that country, but does it occur to us to ask 
whence the writer got his facts ? It is quite evident that 
there must be a great difference between annalists and his- 
torians. The former, as their very title designates, are 
recorders of dry facts, without comments or generaliza- 
tions. A historian records events, with running com- 
ments on incidents which induced the events, and on the 
consequences of such events. There are in every large 
library hundreds of volumes of this character. The vol- 
umes technically called Chronicles were simply Annals. 
The writers gathered together an unconnected chronologi- 
cal series of events, having no connection with the inci- 

3 



34 HITHER AND THITHER. 

dents preceding or following each. It is by browsing 
among the reprints of these ancient records, that a truer 
insight is gained into the eA'cryday life and habits of our 
ancestors, than from any other source. 

Long ago a series of these volumes, to which atten- 
tion is called in detail in the preceding article, was under- 
taken and still continues to appear periodically, some two 
hundred and fifty volumes having been issued under tlie 
general title "The Chronicles and Memorials of Great 
"Britain and Ireland during the ^liddle Ages,'' edited by 
able scholars and persons, selected for their special ability 
to edit such records of past times. 

The majority of the old manuscripts are in Latin, 
others are in iSTorman-French and Irish; but wath each is 
given, by way of preface, a full synopsis or outline of the 
work, so that, whether tlie reader can follow the original 
or not, the whole is laid out clearly for his information in 
these prefaces, which often cover from three to four 
hundred pages. Where they are in anything but the old 
monastic Latin, in addition to these prefaces a translation 
accompanies the reproduction of the original. Readers can 
therefore gain an insight into the daily lives of the monk- 
ish writers and tJie inhabitants of the monasteries of a 
bygone time, as clear and specific as they would by reading 
an account from a good correspondent, of some home in 
which their interests and affections were centered. Take, 
for instance, the chronicles of the Monastei-y of Melsa,^ 
from 1150 to 1406. This abbey of Meaux w^as a Cister- 

' Chronica Monasterii de Melsa ab anno 1150 usque ad annum 1406. 
Vols. I-III, edited by Edward Augustus Bond, 1866-1868. (Rolls 
Series 43.) 



EARLY CHROHICLES. 35 

cian house, and "the work of its Abbot is a faithful and 
"often minute record of the establishment of a religious 
"community, of its progress in forming an ample revenue, 
"its struggles to maintain its acquisitions and of its rela- 
"tions to the governing institutions of the country." 

The volume comprising the "Fasciculi,"^ or "small 
"packet," of Wyclif gives the only contemporaneous account 
of the rise of the Lollards. 

We all know the story of the three spinning women in 
Grimm's "Fairy Tales," and the general mediaeval version 
of three mysterious visitants, spreading a table for three to 
bring good luck to children born in that house. The 
monks of the Abbey of Evesham in their Chronicle^ trace 
the origin of their house to a vision of three beautiful 
maidens in heavenly garments, singing sweetly. They 
were seen by a swineherd in a forest, who reported their 
appearance to the Bishop, who was favored with the same 
vision and founded the monastery on the spot where the 
maidens had appeared. The device on the Abbey seal rep- 
resents the vision. 

There are many versions of this incident, notably in a 
poem on the miracles of St. Swithin, and of course, in the 
three weird sisters of "Macbeth." 

One of Anstey's most popular novels, "The Tinted 
"Venus," is nothing more than an elaboration of one of the 

^ Fasciculi Zizaniorum Magistri Johannis Wyclif cum Tritico. 
Ascribed to Thomas Netter. Edited by W. W. ShiVley, 1858. (Rolls 
Series 5.) 

^ Chronicon Abbatiae Evesbamensis. Edited by W. D. Macray, 
1863. (Rolls Series 29.) 



36 HITHER AND THITHER. 

stories or legends taken from these old Chronicles/ 
modified in its tone to suit a nineteenth centnry audience. 
In the Chronicles, however, the story is told as veracious 
history. 

The way in which many of these Chronicles were com- 
piled is curious. The ''habit of putting together Annals 
''began to be formed very early." Many of the chroniclers 
were exceedingly credulous. They gave funny, rather 
than reasonable, explanations in matters, such for instance, 
as to how places acquired names. That given in the Anglo- 
Saxon Chronicle of the origin of the name Portsmouth^ 
is a case in point, as also is the alleged origin of the name 
of the Isle of Wight.^ The method of compilation seems 
to have been for a Chronicler to take some existing manu- 
script and add to it or correct it, according to what he 
deemed better information, and then continue it by a 
record of all such local or personal matters as were within 
his special knowledge. 

Recollecting that monasteries were the great resting 
places of travellers and that in early days news traveled 
slowly, it was but natural that visitors bringing news of 
other countries and localities should be keenly welcomed 
at tables where monotony was apt to prevail; and what 
could be more natural, than that the writer or annalist of 
each particular religious house, should gather in and 
record all the news that he could ? 

' Scotichronicon; William of M.ilniesbury ; Roger of Wendover and 
]\Iatthew of Westminster. 

' Anglo Saxon Chronicle — .501 A. D. 

'Anglo Saxon Chronicle — 449 A. D. 



EARLY CHEONICLES. 37 

In the volumes of Matthew Paris, ^ as in many others, 
additional pleasure is given by the incorporation of a large 
number of fac-similes of tlie early manuscripts, beautifully 
executed and of great general interest. Much attention 
has been directed to many of these Chronicles by the series 
translated and published in the ever-popular Bohn's 
"Antiquarian Library," and for a general reader these are 
of great value and undoubtedly of much interest. It has 
been said : "It is better to read in ancient times than about 
"them; so it is better to read ancient writers themselves, 
"even though you have to read translations only, rather 
"than to read only about them." 

Even at the risk of repeating an oft-told story, it may be 
well to mention the "ISTuremberg Chronicle." This was 
published in 1493. It is a handsome folio, and on the first 
leaf is a prefix, styling it a chronicle of events from the 
beginning of the world, with figures (or portraits) and 
illustrations. Dibdin devoted twenty-six folio pages to a 
description of this book.^ "It is a vast work," says the 
bibliographer Meusel, "but crammed with many absurd 
"and fabulous narratives, in which, however, many 
"curious things can be discovered." The woodcuts exceed 
two thousand two hundred in number, though some wood- 
cuts do service for several persons, one portrait serving to 
represent Suetonius, Julius Africanus, Venerable Bede, 
Hugo de St. Victor, St. Bernard, Alexander of Aries, 

^ Matthaei Parisiensis Historia Anglorum, Historia Minor. Vols. 
I-III, edited by Frederick Madden, 1866-1869. (Rolls Series 44.) 
Matthaei Parisiensis Monachi Sancti Albani, Chronica Majora. Vols. 
I-VII, edited by Henry Richards Luard, 1872-1884. (Rolls Series 57.) 

^ Bibliotheca Spenceriana. Vol. Ill, p. 255, etc. 



38 HITHER AND THITHER. 

John of Monte Villa and John Gerson. In this Chron- 
icle will be fonnd an illnstrated account of an old 
virago who was carried off by the Devil on a broom- 
stick on acconnt of her bad language. This furnished 
Southey with the foundation for his ballad entitled 
"The Old Woman of Berkeley." The punishment of 
some young men and maidens who interrupted midnight 
Mass by singing and dancing, and were compelled to dance 
for a twelve-month uninterruptedly, is given in story and 
picture. Some of the statements in the old Chronicles are 
decidedly humorous, for instance, where the acts of the 
Creator on the sixth day are thus stated: "On the sixth 
"day He created all animal kind and all the beasts that 
"go on four feet, and the two men, Adam and Eve." 

ISTotwithstanding the bulk of this great volume, the 
editor stated that it would be desirable to add an account 
of all the important subsequent events of the world, and, 
therefore, he bound up six blank pages to meet that con- 
tingency. 



Botany and Block-Books, 



Botany and Block- Books. 



A STROLLER through the many devious paths of a 
great wood or a rarely-trodden forest has many 
and very unexpected revelations. Paths and 
byways of varied delight meet him. He will not find in 
the forest a specimen of the edelweiss, but perhaps he will 
run across a great mass of superb gerardia, the extra-trop- 
ical delight of a lover of uncultivated wild flowers. Later 
he will bathe his senses in the flower delight of an acre of 
wild hyacinths. Each discovery will furnish him with a 
subject for special study and afford a keen pleasure both 
to his eye and mind when he considers the habits, growths 
and peculiarities of each. 

It is so when a browser or student passes along among 
the varied lines of books arranged in a library, like paths 
in a printed fairyland. The profusion of books upon 
flowers, trees and botany, creates astonishment in the 
reader who pauses in front of the shelves, in a large library, 
devoted to volumes on these subjects. Possibly on no sub- 
ject have books excelled, in beauty and in the art of book- 
making, those devoted to floriculture. To many of these, 
41 



42 HITHER AND THITHER. 

too, a curious and interesting story is attached. Let a 
reader enter a large library and ascertain where books on 
this subject are placed, and a revelation awaits him. The 
books on this topic have attained to perfection in form 
and execution. Take, for instance, the greatest work ever 
published on one family — the orchids. 

As long since as 1886, Mr. H. Sotheran, of London, 
commenced the publication of the book "Reichenbachia,"^ 
devoted to the illustration and description of orchids, in 
which he was assisted by scientific authority. It was issued 
in forty-eight parts, and the imwrial edition, printed in 
atlas folio of about 261/4 inches by 19 inches, was limited 
to an issue of one hundred copies. A copy of this work 
was presented to the Free Library of Philadelphia by Mr. 
Clarence H. Clark, and is bound up in eight volumes. It 
has one hundred and ninet^^-two splendidly-colored illus- 
trations of orchids, drawn natural size, accompanied 
by descriptive letter press and where necessary, ana- 
lytical drawings of the structural parts of the flowers. 
Some of the plant portraits are colored by lithography, 
and others hand-painted. The title of the book is adopted 
from the name of Dr. Reichenbach, of Hamburg, "the 
"great orchidologist, who devoted his life to the study of 
"tlie orchid family." It has been remarked of this pro- 
fessor that he constantly surprised his friends and "not 
"seldom shocked them." lie reserved his greatest sensation 
until the last, "until, in fact, he certainly could not enjoy 

^ Reichenbachia; orchids illustrated and described by Frederick 
Sander: 1st ser. 2 vols, in 4; 2d ser. 2 vols, in 4. Loudon, Sotlieran. 
1886-1894. (Imperial Edition.) 



BOTANY AND BLOCK-BOOKS, 43 

"it in the flesh, and probably not in the Sipirit." He died 
in May, 1889, and his will was not only absurd in itself, 
but humiliating to human nature. His collections, his 
herbarium, his botanical library were unequaled in the 
world. He was the foremost expert on ordiids. He had 
left England in 1863 in a huff, where and all over the 
world he was recognized as the "Orchid King." It had been 
thought that he was more comfortable at Kew, in England, 
than he was even at home, but he was sensitive to an unbe- 
lievable degree. To dispute his dictum was to place your- 
self in an unforgivable position, and "when a great book 
"was issued with only such reference to the Orchid King 
"as could not be avoided, his mind revolted, and he left 
"England in a rage." His personal pride dominated all 
his feelings, and how intensely he felt the non-recognition 
of his undoubtedly pre-eminent position in this study was 
shown when his will was read, by which he gave all his 
collections to the Imperial Hof Museum, at Vienna, under 
the condition tbat his preserved orchids should not be 
exhibited before twenty-five years from the date of his 
death and until that time his collection was ordered to be 
preserved in sealed cases. It stands to reason that, how- 
ever carefully preserved they may be, they will either be 
boxes of dust when the twenty-five years have elapsed, or 
merely a collection of superseded specimens by reason of 
later studies by newer students. 

Leaving aside this unpleasant part of the story ; to turn 
over the leaves of these eight volumes is a simple delight. 
For a floriculturist they are a revelation. Those who have 
been through the great orchid chambers at Kew and on 



44 HITPIER AND THITHER. 

Miss Gould's estate at Tn^ingtoii wonder, as they stand 
spellbound in those conservatories, at the varieties of fonns 
that exist, and yet it is surprising how small a part of the 
entire family has been gathered together in tliese collec- 
tions. 

Hardly does the browser turn from these volumes before 
he is apt to run against a great work entitled "Flora de 
"Filipinas,"^ in six folio volumes, four consisting of text, 
printed in Spanish and Latin on the same page, and two 
of colored lithographed plates. It is a monumental work 
of the highest character, classified according to the sexual 
system of Linnanis by an Augustinian, Manuel Blanco. It 
was published at Manila first in 1837, again in 1845, 
and finally a third time in 1877-1883, for the Friars of St. 
Augustine, under the direction of His Excellency, the late 
Sebastiano Vidal y Soler, assisted by two able botanists of 
the Augustinian Order of Friars. It was composed from 
manuscripts of Fr, Blanco, of that Order, and the plates 
were drawn and colored from nature by native artists. 
They were sent to Barcelona, Avhere they were litho- 
graphed, and after six hundred copies had been printed off, 
the stones were destroyed. As may be noticed in many 
cases the specimens are depicted both in flower and in 
fruit, necessitating in a large number of instances a gath- 
ering of the specimens at distinct seasons of the year. 

There were several stoppages during the printing of 
tlie work, caused by a large fire at one time and by an 
earthquake at another, from both of which the printing 

'Flora de Filipinas par el P. Fr. Manuel Blanco. Gran Edition. 
Manila: Plana y Ca, 1877, etc. 



BOTANY AND BLOCK-BOOKS. 45 

establishment at which the book was being published suf- 
fered. The original editor was Sr. Domingo Vidal, who, 
unfortunately, after two or three parts of the work had 
been given out, was obliged to leave the Philippines on 
account of poor health. Several months later he died, and 
his brother, who assumed the editorship upon his departure 
from Manila, continued the work until it was finished. 

It is not, however, by the examination of these great 
works only, that the fascinating study of flowers is 
encouraged in a large library. "Elizabeth and Her Ger- 
"man Garden"^ has been supplemented by a variety of 
books, such as ''Judith's Garden," a story about flowers, 
by Mrs. Mary E. S. Basset; "The Garden of a Commuter's 
"Wife;2 and the sequel to "Elizabeth," entitled "The 
"Solitary Summer."^ The special study of Alpine flowers 
in Sutherland's book'* on that subject, many books by 
Darwin, such as the ones on climbing plants, orchids fer- 
tilized by insects, cross and self-fertilization in the vege- 
table kingdom, and Williams' "Window Gardening" are 
but a few of the many that will reward a reader for 
strolling into and resting in this path of the forest of liter- 
ature. 

It is by no means necessary to restrict oneself to the 
above named modern books. In Alexander ISTeckam's 
"ISTatural History,"^ as also in Pliny's "]^[atural History," 

^ By the Grafin von Arnim. 

^Macmillan, 1901, anon. 

' By the Grafin von Arnim. 

* Handbook of hardy herbaceous and Alpine flowers. By William 
Sutherland. Edinburgh; Blackwood, 1871. 

° Alexandri Neckam de Naturis Rerum libro duo. Edited by 
Thomas Wright, 1863. (Rolls Series 34.) 



4r6 HITHER AND THITHEE. 

will be found many dozens of pages of interesting matter, 
shoAving what the ancients knew, or more probably did not 
know about trees and flowers, tlieir remedies, their virtues 
and their peculiarities. 

By some strange twist of the mind, while reading or 
writing of these books, some of which are the very per- 
fection of modern book-making, a stroller in the paths of 
bookland is apt to turn into a narrow, crabbed lane, in 
which he will come across some of the earliest specimens 
of books, thus becoming acquainted with the greatest 
contrasts to the sumptuous modem volumes. In the pres- 
ent day it is almost impossible to think of what the world 
was before the invention of printing ; and no topic is more 
full of surprises and interest than the study of the begin- 
ning of this art. 

As a successor to the early impressions of playing cards, 
introduced from the East about 1350, many specimens of 
which will be found in the second volume of ''Die Anfange 
''der Druckerkunst in Bild und Schrift,"^ and as a connect- 
ing link between manuscripts and books printed with mov- 
able types, there flourished for a short period of ten to 
twenty years a series of volumes popularly known as 
"Block-Books." 

They are books printed wholly from carved blocks of 
wood, and are frequently called "Image-Books," having 
been chiefly impressed with images of saints and other 
historical figures, with a text or a few explanatory lines 

^ Die Anfange der Druckerkunst in Bild und Schrift ... in der 
Weigel'schen Sammlung . . . erlautert von T. 0. Weigel und Dr. 
Ad. Zestermann. Leipzig: T. 0. Weigel, 1866. 



BOTANY AND BLOCK-BOOKS. 4:7 

cut in onto tJie block. Tlie text was carved and not put 
together witli movable types. There are possibly nearly a 
hundred of these, though really only from ten to thirty are 
properly so called. The dated block-books are mainly 
between 1470 and 1480, though a disputed date of 1440 
has been asserted to exist on the ''Brussels Block-Book." 

The method of production was as follows : A block when 
carved was thoroughly wetted with a thin, watery ink and 
an impression taken on a sheet of damp piaper rubbed 
over the block with a dabber or burnisher. The letter-press 
was frequently cut in imitation of handwriting. As 
movable types became general, the use of block-books, 
promptly and absolutely died out. The pictures were their 
all in all, the text being made as inexpensively as possible. 

The four best known are the "Ars Moriendi," the "Bib- 
"lia Pauperum," the "Apocalypticse" and the "Canticum 
"Canticorum." 

The first edition of the "Ars Moriendi" is dated 1450, 
a copy of which was purchased by the British Museum 
in 1872, for £1,072.10. It has eleven illustrations. Herr 
Weigel, from whom, it was obtained, says "it is the very 
"first edition." A fac-simile of it has been printed by 
the Holbein Society, from the copy in the British Museum, 
with an introduction by Mr. George Bullen. Excellent 
specimens of this curious work vnll be found in Lacroix's 
"Middle Ages,"^ I^oel Humphreys' "History of the Art 
"of Printing"^ and similar books. The block-books printed 

^ Les Arts aii Moyen Age et a I'^poque de la Renaissance ; par Paul 
Lacroix. Paris: Didot Frferes, Fils et Cie, 1869. (Eng. ed. London: 
Virtue & Co.) 

* History of the Art of Printing. By H. Noel Humphreys ( second 
issue). London: Quaritch, 1868. 



48 HITHER AND THITHER. 

in the beginning of the fifteenth century afford matter for 
interesting comparison with those executed ten, fifteen or 
twenty years before. 

It is to be regretted that there is no satisfactory hand- 
book devoted to this subject. One writer describes one or 
more and another two or three others of these books, but 
nearly all the writers make use of the books, principally 
as so much argument in the discussion of the history or 
development of typography. The best book on this sub- 
ject at present is Dutuit's,^ but he only deals in absolute 
detail with some seven of the block-books, and then gives a 
notice sommaire of the remainder. 

Fac-similes of pages from the "Biblia Pauperum" will 
be found in Blades' "Pentateuch of Printing,"^ as well as 
in Humphreys' work. There are various dated copies of 
this book, which seems to have been designed as a bofjk for 
the poor friars. Some say that the book was prepared by 
St. Ansgar, who copied the designs from sculptures in the 
Cathedral at Bremen. Others say that the drawings are 
from the painted windows of the convent of Ilerschare. 
They are probably from the old "Ilistoria" of the Old and 
^ew Testaments. Humphreys says "that Lawrence Kos- 
"ter, of Harlem, the inventor of movable types," was 
the printer of the "Biblia Pauperum," but the whole mat- 
ter, date and all, is much in dispute. In early copies there 
were forty and in later editions fifty leaves. The copies 
vary in detail, but the general idea of the book is tlie same. 

'Manuel a I'Amateur d'Estampes: par Eugene Dutuit. Paris, 
London, 1884-1885. 

' Pentateuch of Printing, with a chapter on Judges. By William 
Blades. Chicago: McClurg, 1891. 



BOTANY AND BLOCK-BOOKS. 49 

On the same pages are given pictures of apostles and 
prophets, or of patriarchs of the Old Testament and saints 
of the Christian Church, and these by the selected text are 
shown in type and anti-type. A copy was sold in 1897 for 
£1,050, though in earlier days copies had been sold for £37 
and £257. 

"The Song of Songs," or ''Canticum Canticorum," is of 
Holland or Dutch origin, and Mr. Bullen, the keeper of 
the books in the British Museum, describes tlie designs as 
showing marked improvement, and as being demonstra- 
tively of the school of the Van Eycks. They are undoubt- 
edly superior from an artistic point to the drawings of the 
"Biblia Pauperum," The designs are a series of appli- 
cations of the words of the Canticles to St. Mary, the 
Virgin. 



British Essayists, 



British Essayists, 



APEEFECTLY delightful peep in the umbrageous 
paths of booklore will be found by those seeking 
the company of the British Essayists. Just 
think who the principal writers were! Steele, Addison, 
Pope, Bishop Berkeley, Doctor Johnson, Swift, Chester- 
field, Lord Orford, Thomas Warton, Cumberland, and a 
galaxy of other bright lights that have graced English 
literature. The writings of the essayists may be called the 
invention of newspapers, not "such as we have to-day, nor 
"even like the early 'Mercuries,' or the purely official 
"news sheets; still, the first attempts to guide public 
"opinion." 

At the end of the seventeenth century there were two 
centers of society — the court with the aristocracy, and the 
clubs and coffee houses used by the commercial and profes- 
sional classes. The essayists sought, out of the contact 
between these classes, to mould opinion. With the eman- 
cipation of tlie press from State control, by the lapse and 
non-renewal of the Licensing act in 1679, arose the devel- 
opment of the modern press. The time and the occasion 
for such a growth were existent. What was wanting was 
53 



54 HITHER AND THITHER. 

tlie man to fit the needs of the times. Such a man was 
Sir Eichard Steele. 

The originator of essays as a form of periodical writing 
was Daniel Defoe. In 1704 he commenced the literary 
and political journal, entitled The Review,^ a number 
appearing on those days of the week "when the post left 
"London for tlie conntry." His politics brought him into 
such frequent collision with the authorities that The 
Review was discontinued; but other wi-iters followe-d the 
example he had set, and a legion of periodical essays were 
published. 

How delightful it is to be dra-wn to read these essays, and 
through them to be induced to peruse the biogi-aphies, of 
such an inimitable ne'er-do-weel as Dicky Steele, and the 
famous Mr. Joseph Addison, which tell of their curious 
experiences of matrimony — to read of the recklessness of 
Steele; the apparent uselessness of money when it did 
come to him ; his contests with tlieatrical employees who 
never saw the "color of his Honor's money," and threatened 
never to drive a nail until they did ; and his defeats under 
duns and bailiffs. And this love of biography will be greatly 
accentuated by a perusal of such papers as those in The 
Tatler.^ The essayists, as "\vi*iters, formed a great epoch 
in literature. The Tatler was exclusively the design of 
Steele, and ran ITOO-lTll, through two hundred and 
seventy-one papers. It w^as named "Tatler" in honor 
of the fair sex, and was chiefly intended for thorn in its 
origin. The first four numbers were given away gratuit- 

^ The Review (under various forms and titles) : Feb. 19, 1704 — June 
11, 1713. 
'The Tatler: April 12, 1709— Jan. 2, 1711. 



BRITISH ESSAYISTS, 55 

oiisly. Then the numbers were charged for at the rate 
of one penny, but later the price was two-pence a paper. 
One angry correspondent, whom Steele had styled "Tom 
"Folio," declared that he was designated, in reality, "Tom 
"Fool," and in return described The Tatler as "writings 
"printed on tobacco paper and filled with scurvy letters." 
Tom Folio's indignation arose from his being made the 
subject of a skit upon those who preferred an Aldus or 
an Elzevir to a Horace or a Virgil, and who knew only 
where in some "rare volume" two commas could be found 
on some particular page instead of a parenthesis, by which 
rarity a particular copy could be distingniished, and for 
that reason esteem.ed a treasure, especially if it had, addi- 
tionally, a semicolon turned upside down. "Poor Tom 
"Folio" was described as a man who "knew little but the 
"title pages of books, and those only as a bibliomaniac, 
"and not a bibliophile." Hence his indignation. 

When collected in volumes, the papers of The Tailer 
were sold for a guinea a volume, and had for subscribeirs a 
long list of "the greatest beauties and wits in the whole 
"island of Great Britain," whose names Steele intended to 
print alphabetically, a fact he stated to be "worthy of men- 
"tion, for the sole benefit of those who were not subscribers 
"up to that date." The imaginary editor of The Tatler 
stated its design to be to expose the false arts of life, to pull 
off the disguises of cunning, vanity and affectation, and to 
recommend a real simplicity in our dress, our discourse 
and our behavior. 

The reading of Steele and Addison, and also of books 
about them, will insure to the peruser of Lord Lytton's 



56 HITHER AND THITHER. 

"Devereiix" and Thackeray's "Henry Esmond," increased 
pleasure, as in both of them both are introduced. 

So long as books exist, TJie Spectator,^ the immediate 
successor of The Tatler, will be of much interest to readers. 
The hypothetical club, of which the various members were 
contributors to the paper, proved a popular thought. 
What a pleasure it is to read for the first time about the 
quaint Sir Roger de Coverley, noted for his modesty, gen- 
erosity, hospitality, eccentric whims sho^vn in his courtesy 
to his neighbors, his affection for his family and his amia- 
bility to his servants! 

His adventures, opinions and conversation by or relating 
to himself, occupy twenty-six papers. Of these Addi- 
son wrote fifteen, Steele seven, Budgell three and Tickell 
one. The impropriety attributed to the hero, in Xo. 410, 
has often been quoted as leading to the end of The 
Spectator. It is said that Addison was so enraged at the 
slur cast on the "modem gentleman of Queen Anne's time" 
that he swore, which, it is also said he never did but this 
once, that he would "kill" Sir Roger lest someone else 
should "murder" him. 

"We love Sir Roger," says Thackeray, "for his vanities 
"as much as for his virtues." Many supposed identifica- 
tions of the characters have been advanced, but they are 
probably groundless ; and the club and characters are, more 
likely than not, altogether fictitious. In The Spectator we 
nm across the pleasant satire on tedious memoirs, entitled 
a "Journal of the Retired Citizen," containing a pleasant 

>The Spectator: March 1, 1711-Dec. 6, 1712— June 18, 1714-Dec. 
20, 1714 (635 numbers). 



BRITISH ESSAYISTS. 57 

and satisfactory week's memories, in which the main de- 
tails are: So-and-So tied his knee-strings; retired to bed; 
woke early, worked late, and so on. How many such elab- 
orations of nothing have wearied patient readers. There, 
too, we find "The Vision of Mirza," a perfect piece of 
writing, and for pure fun all can enjoy the description of 
the Busy News Monger, a kind of unoccupied Paul Pry, 
who always arrived when there was a dearth of foreign 
intelligence^ and arrived again before daylight to ascertain 
if the French mails had come in. 

With the commencement of The Guardian^ in 1713, 
which followed The Spectator, arose one of the periodical 
quarrels, which Tonson, the publisher, had with most of 
the persons with whom he had business dealings. The 
difficulty arose probably over some change in sides on a 
political matter, the details of which are not now clearly 
ascertainable, but at all events the last number of The 
Guardian was issued in October of the same year. 

Between The Spectator and its great successor, The 
Rambler,^ a host of unsuccessful, or only temporarily suc- 
cessful, journals were published. John Paine, the book- 
seller, backed The Rambler, and promised Dr. Johnson 
four guineas a week for two papers, with a share in future 
profits, which fortunately materialized. The Rambler 
was published in France and Italy, and the title was lit- 
erally translated by the Italians, II Vagahondo. Dr. John- 
son may be said to have rewritten most of the essays, 
as there were six thousand alterations in the second 

^The Guardian: March 12, 1713-Oct. 1, 1713 (175 numbers). 
='The Rambler: March 20, 1750-March 14, 1752 (208 numbers). 



58 HITHER AIs^D THITHER. 

and third editions, and its valne was shown in that 
the learned doctor lived to see ten large editions pnblished 
in England, besides unlimited copies elsewhere. Numer- 
ous editions have been published since his death. 

On tlie cessation of The Rambler Dr. John Ilawkesworth 
published The Adveniurer} which ran to one hundred and 
forty numbers. He was assisted by Johnson, Joseph War- 
ton and Bathurst, and contributed seventy papers himself, 
Probabl}^ the most amusing paper is that, giving a ludi- 
crous account of a play^^a^ight, who being invited to give a 
reading of a manuscript play at a nobleman's house, meets 
with various physical accidents by tumbling against the 
furniture. It was founded on an actual event in Gay's life, 
and was amusingly paralleled in Guild Hall, London, when 
the King of the Belgians, who was very short-sighted, 
attended to receive the freedom of the city from one of the 
City Companies. Going forward to greet Baroness Bur- 
dett-Coutts, who had just previously been made the first 
"Livery Man" of the city, the King stumbled over a foot- 
stool, barely saving himself from taking a seat in the 
lap of the Baroness, near whom he landed in an undignified 
manner in an adjoining chair, to the great amusement of 
many who were present, including the writer. 

A rather curious incident occurred in connection with tliQ 
publication of the successor to Tlte Adventurer, which was 
entitled The World?' This latter was a successful publica- 
tion, and the sales generally reached to over two thousand a 
number. In No. 209 (the last) the editor was ficti- 

' The Adventurer: Nov. 7, 1752-I\Iareh 9, 1754. 
^The World: Jan. 24, 1753-Dec. 30, 1756. 



BRITISH ESSAYISTS. 59 

tioiisly alleged to have died, and a great deal of mis- 
called fun and joking was extracted from this grim 
piece of humor. When the writer published a second 
edition he superintended the republication of the num- 
ber, and actually died when the last paper was in the 
press. The design of the periodical was to try what good 
could be done by turning the follies of that day '4nto ridi- 
"cule under the mark or defense of apology," and therefore 
"to ridicule, with novelty and good humor, fashions, 
"foibles, vices and absurdities of that part of the human 
"species which calls itself the world." 

There were two editors to the next of the series of essays, 
entitled The Connoisseur,^ namely, George B. Colman and 
Bonnell Thornton. They were at that time young men at 
Oxford. Thornton is celebrated as an early pioneer in the 
getting up of burlesque exhibitions. He inaugurated "An 
"Exhibition of Sign Paintings" in Bow street, Covent Gar- 
den, to which Hogarth also contributed. The catalogue 
explains the jocular character of the signs exhibited. ISTo. 
36, for instance, shows a sailor falling from a horse against 
the tenth milestone from Portsmouth, and represents, it is 
explained, a man out of his element. Hogarth contributed 
a view of the road to Paddington, including a presentation 
of "The Deadly ISTever Green, that Bears Fruit All the 
"Year Round." The sign was Tyburn, with three fellows 
on the gallows, and the critics, we are told, "deemed the 
"piece remarkable for the execution." Of the remainder 
of the publications, suffice it to say, that in The Idler^ we 

^The Connoisseur: Jan. 31, 1754-Sept. 30, 1756. 
*The Idler (published in "The Universal Chronicle or Weekly 
"Gazette"); April 15, 1758-April 5, 1760 (103 numbers). 



60 HITHER AND THITHER. 

find a very severe criticism of a public piece of folly, 
namely, that of a young lady who laid a wager that she 
would ride a thousand miles in a thousand hours. At her 
coming the country people strewed flowers in her way and 
made great rejoicing. What would Dr. Johnson have said 
to tlie later folly executed by a man who, in the middle of 
the last century, walked consecutively one thousand miles 
in one thousand hours, one thousand half miles in one 
thousand half hours, and one thousand quarter miles in 
one thousand quarter hours, being greeted daily by crowds 
of Londoners and their country cousins, who went to see 
him tramping on his weary tan pathway ? 

The Observer,^ which was published by Henry Cumber- 
land, was designed to be a "liber circumcurrens/' that 
is, freely translated, a series of round-about papers. It 
attained to one hundred and fifty-two numbers, and has 
been regarded as a not unworthy successor of The Spec- 
tator and The Adventurer. 

The most interesting collected edition of the British 
Essayists is still that in forty-five volumes edited by Dr. 
Alexander Chalmers,^ with historical and biographical 
prefaces. It is a collection of literature, characteristic of 
the age in which it was written, but now of the past. 

The insight to the manners and customs of the times 
gained by turning over the leaves of these volumes is very 
great. The additional interest gained in tlie other works 
of the authors, and the consequent perusal of biog- 

^ Published in two volumes, 1785 — enlarged 1786 — published in 
six volumes, 1790. 

"London. J. Johnson; and others. 1802-1803. 



BRITISH ESSAYISTS. 61 

raphies, memoirs and similar books, tends to prove that 
this narrow cutting through the forest of literature, cir- 
cumscribed as it may be in its outlook, and somewhat 
similar in character throughout its length, is yet full of 
shady pleasantnesses and views worth seeing, and he who 
has strolled down it once, will be inclined to revisit it often. 



A Few Art Treasures, 



A Few Art Treasures. 



TXTAI^DEEII^G through woods and amongst trees and 
* shrubs, desiring to more closely examine the foli- 
age and the blooms of each, induces many 
and many a one to cull a bouquet, so that the bulbs 
and full-gro-wn flowers may each be examined and enjoyed 
at home. There are, however, treasures which cannot be 
80 collected and carried off to be enjoyed in a house. 
Sprigs of honeysuckle, privet, phlox; sprays of maiden 
fern, nestling violets or bolder sweet-william, may all be 
pluclvcd and carried away for home enjoyment, l^ot so, 
however, a stately tree or bush of broom, which must 
remain in spots to which their lovers must make pilgrimages 
as often as they desire to revel in the sight of their beauty. 
This restriction calls up another phase of the use of 
multitudes of books in a library. Outside of those that 
can be plucked, as it were, and carried home, there are 
numbers of books that can only be examined and studied 
on the spot to which they are rooted or shelved, whether 
such rooting be in a room devoted to art and decoration, 
to ancient and modern architecture, or to whatever may be 

5 



66 HITHER AND THITHER. 

the division of book lore to which such volumes are 
assigned. 

Small and insignificant as are the rooms at present 
appropriated to the purposes of the Free Library of Phila- 
delphia, there are one or two nooks and comers in which 
books can be examined that give rare delight to the casual or 
the devoutest lover of fine books. In examining a few such 
works, we find that each has a separate lesson for those who 
examine them, and each directs the thoughts and ideas of 
the student to a separate and important department of art 
and literature. 

For delicacj^ of coloring and for beauty of book making, 
it would be difiicult to find a better example than Edouard 
Garnier's volume on "The Soft Porcelain of Sevres."^ 
This volume has fifty plates, representing two hundred and 
fifty water-color subjects after the originals. The speci- 
mens are selected from samples in the collections of such 
well-known collectors of Sevres material as Baron 
Alphonse de Pothschild; her Majesty, the Queen Victoria; 
the South Kensington Museum, London; Mons. S. L. 
Watelin ; and Sir Richard Wallace. The work forms the 
subject of a separate article in this volume. 

Many great books are known by reputation to thousands 
who rarely have the opportunity of examining them, yet 
who would be only too glad to make an intimate acquaint- 
ance with their contents. There is a notion abroad that the 
attendants at a library do not like to be asked to exhibit 
books or to aid visitors in obtaining an inspection of a 

^The Soft Porcelain of Sfevres, with an historical introduction by 
Edouard Gamier. London: John C. Nimmo, 1892. 



A FEW ART TEEASTJEES. 67 

library's rarities. Certainly, at the present day, this is 
not so. 

At a reception lield some time since, an opportunity 
to lay out on tables for inspection by one hundred or more 
artists and architects, some of the art treasures of the Free 
Library of Philadelphia, was embraced. It was delightful 
to note the pleasure with which some examined a copy of 
the works of Piranesi the elder and his son, collected in 
twenty-four folio volumies. The two Piranesis executed 
an enormous series of engraved plates, which formed 
almost the life work of the enthusiastic father. The work 
has always been very highly esteemed and King George 
III., in 1771, deemed a copy of this collection worthy of 
presentation as a special gift to Pope Clement XIV. The 
collection contains eleven hundred and eighty plates, with 
three portraits, including the engraved titles and some 
remarkable engraved dedications; one volume being de- 
voted to descriptive text. The whole collection has been 
styled "a gem of art." The elder Piranesi, who spent the 
greater part of his life in Eome, has been called "the Rem- 
"brandt of Architecture," and nothing more remarkable in 
the management of light and shade and in attractive weird- 
ness can be mentioned than many of his engravings in these 
volumes. 

In Volume VI, as the collection is ordinarily bound, are 
sixteen double plates, each plate occupying two pages, 
giving a series of dream-conceived "prisons." These made 
a great impression on Coleridge and De Quincey. The 
latter, in his "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater," 
writes : "Many years ago, when I was looking over Pira- 



68 HITHER AND THITHER. 

"nesi's 'Antiquities of ^01110/ Mr. Coleridge, who was 
"standing by, described to me a set of plates by that artist 
"called his T}reains,' and which record the scenery of his 
"own visions dnring the delirium of a fever. Some of them 
"(I describe only from memory of ^Mr. Coleridge's account) 
"represented vast Gothic halls ; on the floor of which stood 
"all sorts of engines and machinery, wheels, cables, pulleys, 
"levers, catapults, &c., expressive of enormous power put 
"forth and resistance overcome. Creeping along the sides 
"of the wall you perceived a staircase ; and upon it, grop- 
"ing his way upward, was Pirancsi himself. Follow the 
"stairs a little further, and you perceive it to come to a 
"sudden, abrupt termination, without any balustrade, and 
"allowing no step onward to him who had reached the 
"extremity, except into the depths below. Whatever is to 
"become of poor Piranesi, you suppose, at least, that his 
"labors must in some w;\y terminate here. But raise 3'our 
"eyes, and, behold, a second flight of stairs still higher ; on 
"which again Pirancsi is perceived, by this time standing 
"on the very brink of the aliyss. Again elevate your eye, 
"and a still more aerial flight of stairs is behold ; and again 
"is poor Piranesi busy on his aspiring labors; and so on 
"until the unfinished stairs and Piranesi both are lost in 
"the upper gloom of the hall." 

The title and description given by De Quincey are not 
strictly accurate, but still they give a jwwerful insight into 
this v/eird series of engTavings by Piranesi. 

Among other valuable subjects dealt with in this interest- 
ing series of engravings may be mentioned the details of 
Trajan's Column, given in nineteen plates. Towards the 



A FEW ART TKEASUEES. 69 

close of tlie sixteenth, century tliis column had become 
much injured, only the feet of the statue of Trajan remain- 
ing. Pope Sixtus V. undertook the restoratio]i of it in 
1585, and the figure of St. Peter was jgubstituted on the 
summit for the Emperor's fallen statue. The bas-reliefs 
contain about twenty-five hundred human figures, besides 
a great number of horses, fortresses, etc. 

With a glimpse at the Laocoon group, we turn aside 
from Piranesi. This group was esteemed by Pliny as 
"preferable to any other production of the art of painting 
"or of statuary." Piranesi has posed the right arms of 
the figures after the restoration differently to the pose, 
claimed by Llibke to be correct, a drawing of which may be 
found in his "History of Sculpture," page 235. The sub- 
ject has been a favorite one with writers ever since Virgil.^ 
Byron has devoted a stanza to the group in his "Childe 
"Harold;"^ Thomson incorporated its beauties into his 
"Liberty;"^ and it is hardly necessary to mention the fact 
that Lessing used the group as a basis for expounding his 
system of art, giving to the treatise the title "Laocoon, or 
"the limits of Poetry and Painting." 

A book pretty continuously examined and used in large 

libraries by persons connected with decoration as a business 

is a work in two large folio volumes, entitled "Oriental 

"Carpets," published in Vienna by the Imperial and Eoyal 

Austrian Commercial Museum, by authority; the English 

edition'* of which was edited under the direction of Dr. 

^Mneid, Book II, line 199, etc. 

^ Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto IV, stanza 160. 

'Liberty, Part IV, (Britain). 

* Vienna (two parts), 1892-1893. 



70 HITHER AND THITHER. 

Clarke, of the South Kensington Museum in England. 
The work was restricted to four hundred copies, of 
which two hundred form the German edition and the 
remainder the English and French editions. The Free 
Libraiy of Philadelphia possesses copy 'No. 293, and it is a 
work of gi^eat importance to those who desire to inform 
themselves, not only on the rise and progress of the manu- 
facture of carpets, but on the immense capabilities of this 
important article of commerce. There are monographs on 
modern Turkey carpets, on the decorative animal figures 
in old Oriental carpets, the present state of the carj^et 
industry in Persia, the history of Oriental carpet weaving 
in France and kindred subjects. The plates are executed 
in chromotype, and accompanied by plates in heliotype, 
the whole being accompanied by a minute description of 
the warp, weft, knotting and decoration of each carpet. 
The chromotypes are executed on satin and aid those who 
want to study the effect of the carpet, with all its various 
decorations of color, animals, trees, and so on; the helio- 
types assist those who consult the work in order to make a 
careful study of the detail of execution ; while for the com- 
plete understanding of the plates, the preliminary explana- 
tions will be found to be very minute and carefully pre- 
pared. 



A Polyglot Psalter, 



A Polyglot Psalter. 



THEKE are, of course, many interesting polyglot 
Bibles and Psalters, but one of the most interest- 
ing is that generally known as the Genoan poly- 
glot. It comprises the Psalter, and was published in 1516, 
two years after the commencement of the issue of the 
"Complutensian," the earliest of the series. The Genoan 
Psalter is printed in eight columns, four on each page, so 
that the whole group is before the eye at one time. On the 
first page are the Hebrew, a Latin literal version of the 
same, the Vulgate and the Greek. On the opposite page are 
given the Arabic, a Chaldee paraphrase of the same in 
Hebrew characters, a Latin literal translation of the same, 
and in the eighth column are the "scholia" and notes. This 
is the first specimen of Western printing in the Arabic 
character. 

A great deal of interest in the book lies in the fact that 
in one of the notes to Psalm xix, as a commentary on the 
passage "Their words are gone out to the end of the world," 
is given a sketch of the life of Christopher Columbus, with 
an account of the discovery of America and descriptions of 



74 



HITHER AND THITHER. 



the inhabitants. According to this note, Columbus boasted 
himself to be tlie person appointed by God to fulfill the 
prophetic exclamation of the Prophet David, that he should 
carry knowledge to the ends of the world. As may be 
expected, this note has led to much disputation, and the 
son of Columbus, in the "Vida y Hechos del Almirante 
"D. C. Colon," contradicts the statements of the writer of 
the note in several particulars. 

The volume was printed in September, 1516, by Peter 
Paul Porrus, of Milan, on the premises of Nicholas 
Justinian Paul, at Genoa. Porrus himself was a resident of 
Turin. On the last page is a very interesting "printer's 
"mark," consisting of a full-grown leek, with two letters, 
"P. P.," one on each side of the plant. 



Children's Literature. 



Children's Literature. 



IT would certainly seem to be a difficult task to find a 
new field of bibliographical description, and yet a 
few years since, Mrs. E. M. Field apparently did 
so in her volume "The Child and His Book,"^ in which she 
treats chronologically of the history and progTess of chil- 
dren's literature in England. From the time when 
Thomas Frognall Dibdin set the modern bibliographical 
ball rolling, in his new and improved edition of Ames' 
and Herbert's "Typographical Antiquities,"- hundreds of 
volumes have been published dealing with other books, 
limited to minute descriptions of all sorts and descrip- 
tions of works, from Renouard's Aldines and "^A'illems' 
Elzevirs to Lowndes, Brunet, Allibone, Sonnenschein, etc., 
till the mere list of such reference books becomes almost 
bewildering. Ln furnishing a categorical account of the 
rise and progress of children's books as a separate class, 
A[rs. Field supplied a distinct want. She found in Bur- 

^The Child and His Book. Bv Mrs. E. M. Field. London: 
Wells Gardner Darton & Co., 1891. ' 

^ Joseph Ames published his "Typographical Antiquities"' in 1749. 
Vrilliam Herbert's edition, with additional matter, appeared. Vol. I, 
1785; Vol. II. 1786; Vol. III. 1790. Dibdin issued the work in its 
final form: Vol. I, 1810; Vol. II, 1812; Vol. Ill, 1816; Vol. IV, 1820. 



78 



HITHER AND THITHER, 



ton's "Book Hunter" a most admirable text for her mono- 
graph, which seems worth quoting. "If," says Burton, "we 
"are to consider that the condition of the human mind at 
"any particular juncture is worth studying, it is certainly 
"of importance to hear on what food its infancy is fed." 
Mrs. Field gives the history of literature provided for 
children from the earliest times, long before printing was 
invented, to somewhere about the end of the first quarter of 
the last century, and from every chapter much entertain- 
ing, as well as instructive, gossip may be gathered. 
"Beginning at the very beginning," she starts out mth the 
education, small as it was, accorded to British youth before 
the Norman conquest, and describes the early monastic 
schools, when only the teacher was provided vnth. a book. 
The book was most frequently a simple and pleasant Latin 
composition, in which cheerful dialogues of every-day sub- 
jects were used as vehicles for instruction. Generally wide- 
written versions were made on vellum with a gloss or trans- 
lation written in between the lines for the guidance of the 
teacher, who sate in state, in a high-back chair, whilst his 
boy and girl pupils were ranged before him, sitting or 
kneeling, as the case might be, and were instnicted. Dur- 
ing this period the most celebrated student and teacher was 
the Venerable Bede. His books of instruction read oddly 
enough to-day. Astronomy, in his view, had two uses, one 
to display the power of God and the other to fix the church 
calendar; whilst a later teacher, Alcuin, defined herbs as 
"the friends of physicians and the praise of cooks." A 
third teacher was careful to confute sundiw popular errors 
"as that of certain unlearned priests," who declared that 



CHILDEEN^S I.ITEKATUKE. 79 

leap year had been produced by Joshua when he made the 

sun stand still. 

The books from the Conquest to Caxton, covering the 

period 1066-1485, comprised many of counsel or morals 

addressed to young persons. In one of them "the wise 
woman is to love God and the Church ; from the 
latter, rain is not to keep her away ; she is not to chatter 
there ; she is not to be of many words, to swear not leefe, 
nor be ofte drunke." The wise man is "to be diligent 
not tale wijs;" and the whole duty of a child is related in 

one hundred and tAvo lines, in which the use and value of 

the rod to young people is fully expounded, concluding 

with the admonition : 

"So, children, here may ye all hear and see 
"How all children chastised should be ; 
"And therefore, children, look that ye do -well, 
"And no hard beating shall ye befall, 
"Thus may ye all be right good men 

"God grant you grace so to preserve you. 
"Amen." 

The child in England, even if of the dignity of wards of 

royalty, had a serious time whilst under tutelage. Apart 

from the system of a blow for every mistake and general 

corporal correction as a way of knocking knowledge into 

obtuse minds, the mere hours of study were, to put it 

mildly, severe. The rules laid down for Queen Elizabeth's 

wards required them at six to go to prayers, and then have 

a Latin lesson till eleven, when they dined. From twelve 

to two they studied music ; French from two till three ; 

then Latin and Greek till five, after which followed prayers 

and an interval for "honest pastimes." From eight till 

nine the music master again held supremacy, following 



80 HITHER AND THITHER. 

which the wards went to a well-earned bed time. Of 
Busby, famous as a wielder of the rod, it is related, that 
once when he Avas in school, a stone came through the 
window. Busby, supposing the offender to be a boy, sent 
for him, and a Frenchman entered, apologizing profusely. 
Busby, however, merely said to his scholars, "Take him 
^'up," and the unfortunate foreigTier was duly flogged. He 
departed furious, and sent a messenger with a challenge to 
the schoolmaster. Busby read the challenge, tore it up, 
and turned to the boys Avith ''Take him up !" The mes- 
senger was duly whipped, and on his return to his princi- 
pal demanded compensation, but Avas met Avith a shrug: 
''Ah ciel, que faire ? He is the Aapping man I He A'ip me, 
"he vip you, he Aap all the AA'orld !" 

The bocks of courtesy or counsel on manners liaA'e 
special interest, as they afford a deep insight into the every- 
day habits and domestic life of the young people of that 
day ; and in this AA^ay, to the customs of the period. 
The books dealt AA'ith courtesy, demeanor and the arts of 
carving and serving; the details being quaint in the 
extreme and indicating a primitiveness of manners not 
only surprising, but "a little revolting to our modern 
"notions." It AA-as there taught that *'a noble child" should 
not "lick dishes," for that is the propertie of "catties," and 
should remember that it is a "Avilde and rude thinge to 
"lean upon one's elboAv." Such forms of counsel Avere not 
ahvays humbly accepted, as in a caricature of 1605, Ave 
find the advice : 

"Wheo thou art set devoure as rauoli as thon with healthe canst cate 
"Thou therefore wert to dinner bid, to help away his nieate " 



CHILDKEN^S LITERATURE. 81 

About this time came into use the Horn-book, alphabet 
pages and alphabet poems, of which "A apple pie" survives 
to this day, with the worthy and ever-enduring "A was an 
"archer." The antiquity of the alphabet craze, is wit- 
nessed by a sermon of over two centuries ago, in which a 
preacher named Eachard, referred to it in criticising the 
"over-nice" notice taken by preachers of the "letters" of 
their text. "Suppose sir," he said, "that you are to give 
"an exhortation to repentance upon that of St. Matthew, 
" 'Kepent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand ;' you 
"must observe that Repent is a rich word, wherein every 
"letter exliorts us to our duty. Repent, R readily, E 
"earnestly, P presently, E effectually, N" nationally, T 
"thoroughly. Again Eepent, Roaringly, Eagerly, Plenti- 
"fully. Heavily (because of H), K'otably, Terribly. And 
"why no't Repent, Rarely, Evenly, Prettily, Elegantly^ 
"JSTeatly, Tightly ? And also," added Eachard, "why not 
"add A apple-pasty, B bak'd it, etc.," which apparently he 
thought would be as sensible teaching. 

After that period came, from 1510 to 1649, a flow of 
educational reform, during which was produced Ascham's 
"The Scheie Master."^ The immediate cause of his publish- 
"ing this work was, he tells us, "a conversation at Secretary 
"Cecil's dinner-table, while he was in attendance on Queen 
"Elizabeth at Windsor Castle, concerning divers scholars 
"of Eton that be run away from school for fear of beating." 
The idea that a blow should immediately foilow any mis- 
take was evidently very deeply rooted. It existed in one 
of the largest public schools of London down to at least the 

^ The Schole Master. Published posthumously in 1570. 
6 



82 HITHER AND THITHER. 

year 1855, the "sub-master" steadily pursuing that system. 
His predecessor Avas kiiowai as Wack Durham from his 
adherence to that method and from his initials, W. A. C. 
Durham, wherefore it was said he was Wack and his 
pupils Wacked, The way in which boys regarded their 
birch-tormentors is illustrated by Dante's treatment of his 
master (Bmnetto), who was repaid by his grateful pupil 
by being consigned to a region in the Infemo, where, under 
an unremitting reigTi of fire, he must either walk forever, 
or should he pause for a moment, stand still for a hundred 
years. All boys must be curious to know what fate over- 
took Mr. W, P, Russell, the verbotomist, or word-dissector 
as he delighted to call himself, who in reference to his ovm 
book,^ ])ublished in 1805, wrote A\'ith the humility of true 
genius: "I challenge the universe (or the literati of each 
"quarter of the globe) to produce any page exhibiting 
"brevity and perspicuity equal to the two columns in page 
"52. They cannot do it; at least, no such book has ever 
"been before me. I should be glad to see the work that 
"equals Verbotomy in this respect." For a clear and logi- 
cal definition, however, that given in Caxton's "Myrrour"^ 
deserves quotation. "Rethoryke is a scyence to cause 
"another man, by speche or by wryt^nige, to beleue or to 
"do that thynge whyclie thou woldest haue hym for to do. 
"To the which tliou must fyrst deuise some wcy to make 
"thy hercrs glad and wel wyllynge to here." 

The seventeenth century saw great changes, and Puri- 
tan teachings began to hold their sway. The teaching 

' Verbotomy, or the Anatomy of Words. 
^Thymage, or Myrrour of the Worlde, 1481. 



CHILDEEN^S LITERATURE. 83 

prevailed that man, from liis infancy upward, was a lost 
and ruined creature, to be saved from an infinitely horrible 
eternal fate, but to be saved "so as by fire." In the books 
of that period, one hapless child of eight years of age, wept 
inconsolably because he thought he had lied, for when his 
mother had asked him if he felt cold he had said "Yes," 
but afterward doubted if he had been really cold and 
moreover, he knew he was a sinner, because he had whetted 
his knife on the Lord's Day. In an "Epistle to Youth" 
the warning was prefixed : 

''Upon a world, vain, toilsome, foul, 

''A journey now you enter; 
"The welfare of your living soul 

"You dangerously adventure." 

One author, in sending forth his book, trusts that if his 
readers are unable to call it verse, they will at least con- 
sider it good prose. Against this modest apology may be 
set oif the explanation of Samuel Wesley, in 1717,^ who 
"attempted in verse" the history of the ISTew Testament in 
the intervals of his time, which he wished "had never beeii 
"worse employed." "There are," he adds, "some passages 
"here represented which are so barren of circumstances 
"that it was not easy to make them shine in verse." The 
name of Wesley calls to mind that of his brother minister, 
Dr. Watts, of whose verses much merriment is made, 
mainly by those who have not read the despised composi- 

' The History of the Old and New Testament attempted in verse 
and adorned Avith 330 sculptures, 1704. 3 vols. The History of the 
New Testament was first published separately, 1701 ; 3d. ed. 1717. 
The History of the Old Testament separately in 1704 (Allibone). 
The History of the Old and New Testament, attempted in verse, 1704. 
3 vols. 2d ed., 1717. (Diet, of Nat. Biog.) 



84 HITHER AND THITHER. 

tions, on account of a "^c;raniniatical error whicli the good 
"Doctor never really made." lie did not write : 

Let dogs delight to 1)ark and bite. 

For God liath made them so ; 
Let bears and lions growl and fight, 

For 'tis their nature to. 

The line really stands : 

" 'Tis their nature, too." 

An amusing story, says Mrs. Field, is told of a social 
gathering of some thirty people, who, all but one, wagered 
a new hat that the time-honored verse read thus : 

"Let dogs delight to bark and bite, 
"For 'tis their nature to." 

SO deeply fixed in their minds was the popular mistake. 

Of the later providers of children's books, a good account 
is given of John JSTewberry,^ whom Goldsmith styled "the 
"honestest man in creation," and who was almost certainly 
Goldsmith's best friend in the world. It is said that the 
passing traveler who relieved Dr. Primrose at an ale-house, 
when taken ill while on his journey in pursuit of Olivia, 
was no other than "the philanthropic bookseller in St. 
"Paul's Churchyard, who has written so many little books 
"for children." ISTewberry was a good forerunner of the 
present trade advertisers, and adopted many advertising 
devices. The following was one of them : "This day was 
"published 'I^urse Truelove's K^cw Year's Gift, or the Book 
" 'of Books for Children,' adorned with cuts, and designed 
"as a present for every little Iwy who would become a gi*eat 
* Born 1713 — died 1767. See for references Diet, of Nat. Biog. 



children's literature. 85 

"man and ride -upon a fine horse, and to every little girl 
"wlio would become a great woman and ride in a 
"Lord Mayor's gilt coach. Printed for the author, who 
"has ordered these books to be given gratis to all little boys 
"and girls at the Bible an^d Sun in St. Paul's Churchyard, 
"they paying for the binding, which is 2d each book." 
Another device was to advertise a "Pretty Pocket-Book at 
"6d., but for 8d. to add a ball for a boy or a pincushion for 
"a girl to the purchase." 

The whole of Mrs. Field's book is extremely interesting. 



i 



The Hammurabi Code. 



The Hammurabi Code/ 



FIVE thousand years ago Hanuiinrabi, then King of 
Babylon, promulgated a Code of laws, for the 
government of the mighty peoples he had sub- 
dued and over whom he ruled. This Code is preserved on 
a stone stele discovered at Susa, in Persia. It is a magnifi- 
cent monument, nearly seven feet in height, and contains 
nearly five thousand lines of cuneiform characters, each 
line containing an average of six words. The inscription, 
as is usual in so many of these ancient monuments, is 
columnar. How this monument came to be at Susa is not 
explained. It was probably taken from Babylon at some 
time when the King of Susa gained a victory over his 
neighbor and Suzerain. 

The most regrettable feature in connection with this 
stele, is that one of the columns has been carefully polished 
down so that the inscription is lost. It is thought that this 
was done in order that the captor of the stele might record 
his name and dignities on the cleared space. Having 
omitted to do this, we are left to the reasonable con- 

'^The Code of Hammurabi, King of Babylon about 2500 B. C. By 
Robert Francis. Chicago University Press; Callaghan & Co. 
London; Luzae & Co., 1904. 



90 HITHER AND THITHER. 

jectiire that he, as Shakespeare would call it, "con- 
"veyed" the monument to his own territoiy, but for some 
unexplainable reason failed to carry out his intention of 
recording the facts on the space which had been rubbed 
down for the purpose. ISTo more interesting document has 
been brought to the knowledge of the present day than this 
Code. The stone was found by M. de ]\Iorgan, and on 
it is preserved an elaborate record, by no means tinged 
with modesty, of Hammurabi's estimation of his own 
greatness, followed by two hundred and eighty-two edicts 
or laws. The whole is concluded by an epilogue, or 
lengthy enumeration, of the great blessings conferred upon 
the world by Hammurabi, and of his greatness and benefi- 
cence in thus providing a rule which should be for his own 
people, then, and thereafter to the end of time. Before he 
brings his epilogue to a close he launches forth into a series 
of curses and anathemas upon anyone Avho may deface any 
part of the Code ; venture to try and amend or improve the 
same ; or otherwise disfigure the superlative quality of his 
work. The series of curses related by the Eeverend Mr. 
Barham in his "Ingoldsby Legends" on inisdoers and those 
laid by the Church in the Dark Ages on sacrilegious per- 
sons are magnificent. They are no exaggeration of tlie 
fearful retribution, invoked by Hammurabi, on those who 
should attempt to injure his legal monument. 

The edicts themselves show that, even at that early date 
in the history of the world, rules for the government of 
society or communities had assumed a well-developed 
method. 

The first thing that strikes one on reading the Ham- 



THE HAMMURABI CODE. 91 

murabi Code is the lack of the element of mercy and a 
curious attempt to award pimishments which should be the 
exact equivalent of each crime. We are all familiar with 
the "Eye for an eye" and "Tooth for a tooth" form of 
satisfaction for a crime, but Hammurabi in many cases 
throughout his Code, gives original ideas of this law of 
retaliation, at once curious and suggestive. For instance, 
if a man kills or causes the death of another man's son, 
the son of the man who commits the injury is to be put to 
death. This, of course, may be an exceedingly satisfactory 
way of getting an exact equivalent for the wrong com- 
mitted, but can liardly be regarded as satisfactory to the 
son, thus compelled to lose his life, because his father com- 
mitted a crime or did a wrong. 

Immediately after the discovery of the Code an elaborate 
and admirably-executed transcript, and translation of it 
into French, was published. This, again, has been trans- 
lated into German, and this German translation of a trans- 
lation, has been written out in English and recently 
printed. Of course, those who are able to read the cunei- 
form inscriptions point out that, admirable as it is to be 
able to obtain a general idea of the document without 
delay ; much time and labor will have to be spent upon the 
subject before the true meaning of the Code can be given 
in book form for the use of students. 

The question was raised, as soon as the Code was pub- 
lished, whether or not it had been taken from Babylon to 
Susa by the Elamites, from whence it had found its way to 
Egypt, and so after the expiration of a thousand years, had 
been used by Moses, in some greater or less degree as an aid 



92 HITHER AND TIIITIIEE. 

in the preparation of the great Pentatenchal legislation. A 
large number of the Hebrew scholars, however, are posi- 
tively of opinion, that there is no ground whatever for 
tliinking that the Hammurabi Code was known to, or came 
within the purview of Moses. That a gi-eat system of legis- 
lation existed in countries, far more civilized than we have 
been inclined to admit ; that very early peoples had codes 
and legislation of a very definite and carefully-prepared 
character ; and that these codes were probably founded on a 
long series of cases, tried and determined in able courts, 
which would influence, and be generally kno^m to persons 
of the advanced knowledge of the Egyptians at the time 
of MoseSi, can easily be apj)rehended. Some of the general 
principles, worked out by the rulers of tlie earth centuries 
before the time of Moses, must necessarily have been 
familiar to the learned Egyptians. The very con- 
trast existing between the Hammurabi Code and the 
Pentatenchal Laws, would seem to give prima facie evi- 
dence that Moses had no access to the Babylonian Laws as 
epitomized in this Code. It has been pointed out more 
than once that a special point of diiference between the two 
Codes is shown, in the matter of punishment by ordeal, 
and it would be easy to point out many other xerj striking 
differences. The laws of Moses are full of sanitary 
provisions, provisions for the Sabbath, provisions against 
unnatural crimes, provisions regulating a priesthood, 
ISTone of these subjects are dealt with in the Babylonian 
Code. 

The subject is so obviously full of interest, and is so cer- 
tain to be dealt with in great detail, that it is to be hoped 



THE HAMMURABI CODE. 93 

that a good English translation, made direct from the 
cuneiform inscription, will be speedily offered for the 
benefit of those who are unable to read from the fac-similes 
of the original, which have already made their appear- 
ance. 



Saint Mark V, Venice. 



Saint Mark's, Venice, 



EVEIsT in the present age of dainty volumes, sumptu- 
ous reprints and encyclopsedio issues, a feeling of 
astonishment cannot but be created by the enter- 
prise of the editor and publisher of the superb "La Basilica 
"di San Marco in Venezia, Illustrata Nella Storia e ISTell' 
"Arte da Scrittori Veneziani" (Venice: Ferdinand On- 
gania. 1877-1891). The price of unboimd copies in port- 
folios was two thousand, three hundred and thirtj^-three 
francs, the edition being limited to five hundred mmibered 
copies, of which a very few only were subscribed for in 
this country when the work was first published. As this 
stupendous monograph can only be in the possession of a 
limited number of library owners, and is not likely to be 
accessible, even for inspection, by the generality of art 
lovers, it seems to be a work worthy of description in more 
detail than is usual in noticing ordinary illustrated books. 
The work has had a very checkered existence. A publi- 
cation with the same title and general scope as the present 
one was begun by Messrs Kreutz in the year 1843, but, 
notwithstanding a handsome subsidy from the Austrian 
Government, it was not carried far, and was "discontinued 

7 



98 HITHER AND THITHER. 

"shortly aftenvards on their decease." Xo mention is 
made of what became of the subsidy. The work was 
subsequently taken in hand by M. Ongania, of Venice, and 
entailed on him from twelve to fourteen years' labor. It 
is founded on the original scheme, but, under encouragc- 
m.ent from Mr. Ruskin, Octave Uzaiine and others, Avas 
enlarged in scope, and, notwithstanding repeated modifi- 
cations in minor details as the volumes progressed, has 
become an accomplished fact. It is a work comprising 
volumes of various sizes. Two are of atlas folio size, 
seven of imperial quarto, and two of small quarto form. 
It gives a minute and complete illustrated and textual 
account of almost every inch of the "Church of Gold," the 
mosaics of which cover about forty thousand square feet, 
surrounded b}^ a wealth of gilding, bronze and Oriental 1 
marble, and is the result of the co-operative assistance of a 
small army of enthusiastic artists, antiquaries and authors. 
The two atlas-folio volumes have eighty-six chromo- 
lithographs, executed by Giesecke & Devrient, Winckel- 
mann and others, which may challenge comparison with 
any similar efforts. Of these plates, twenty-one give the 
entire fagade of the church, and if mounted on one canvas 
would form a single large illustration measuring 8 feet 
9 1/2 indies in length by 5 feet 9 inches in height. Others 
of the plates are interesting as showing the transformation 
of the celebrated fagade under successive restorations, and 
are followed by a series of reproductions in colors of the 
quaint and heavily-gilt mosaics which decorate the various 
cupolas of the vestibule and north outermost aisle. These 
comprise a very interesting series of drawings depicting 



SAINT MABK S^ VBWIOE. »tf 

the creation of the world, followed by the lives of N'oah, 
Joseph, Moses and scenes from the lives of Saint Mary 
and the Saviour. It is impossible to notice each of the 
volumes, which are filled with hundreds of heliographs of 
details of the altars, monuments and sculptures of the 
Basilica ; but Volume VIII will probably best reward 
examination. It contains ninety-seven plates in large 
quarto, of which twenty-one are chromo-lithographs and 
the remainder heliotypes, many being printed in colors, 
reproducing the collection of art gems preserved in the 
Treasury, including princely Byzantine bookbindings, 
reliquaries, crosses, Venetian lace, tapestries, and chalices, 
a pax, the gift of Cardinal Grimani, and another pax, the 
gift of Pope Gregory XVI. 

It would seem to be true, that of the thousands of visitors 
to St. Mark's from all parts of Europe and America, but 
a veiy small percentage see the greatest of all its treasures, 
the Pala d'Oro, or Altar Front, forming a kind of reredos. 
It is placed on a solid support of fine marble, at about a 
metre's distance behind the high altar, but has before it a 
less valuable Pala, which serves for general use. The Pala 
d'Oro is not exhibited unless specially inquired for, it being 
as a rule, only uncovered two or three times a year, on high 
festivals. It was originally intended to embellish the 
front of the altar, and is a remarkable specimen of Byzan- 
tine art, dating from the year 900. It is filled with 
quaint, sacred figure-subjects in enamels, inlaid some in 
plates of gold and some in silver gilt. Each minute detail 
of workmanship and color is shown in the chromo-litho- 
graphs in Volume VIII. The majority of visitors not 



100 HJTHEE AND THITHER. 

knowing what a treasure stands behind the altar, fail to 
produce the "silver key" which alone will procure a view 
of it; but, to these and all others who have had no oppor- 
tunity to see tbe original, the chromos will give genuine 
pleasure. The Pala consists of eighty-five panels arranged 
in rows, containing representations of sacred personages 
and subjects, with two devoted to the Doge Ordelaifo 
Falier, who renovated the altar-piece in 1105, and Irene, 
the Empress of Constantinople, in whose honor there are 
two lengthy Latin inscriptions, one recounting particulars 
of the renovation executed by Doge OrdelafFo Falier and 
the other a subsequent renovation by Doge Pietro Zain 
in 1209. The Pala gradually lost some of its valuable 
jewels and other ornaments, but in 1847 the whole was 
carefully repaired and the lost jewels replaced by votive 
gifts from devout ladies and others, who gladly re])aired 
the losses incurred by time and carelessness. On this last 
restoration was expended a sum of more than twenty 
thousand francs. 

Among the most interesting plates are eight added to 
Volume II. by way of appendix, giving a fac-simile of a 
celebrated w^ood-engraving executed in Venice by Mattio 
Pagan (1556-1569), of "The Procession of the Doge on 
"Palm Sunday." A large number of the official and civil 
dresses of the period are shown, and many different head- 
dresses of women are to be seen among the crowds at the 
windows of the Piazza watching the procession pass. The 
series is also instructive as to the insignia of office : it 
shows the chair, ducal crown and sword of state carried 
before and after the Doge ; a set of six silver trumpets that 



SAINT mark's^ VENICE. 101 

have to be supported by pages on account of their extra- 
ordinary length; the celebratod official umbrella under 
which the Doge walks, and so forth. Only three copies of 
this engraving exist, and of these the copy in the Museum 
of Bassano (Veneto), from which the editor has taken this 
appendix, is the only one in Italy. 

The quotation, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever," is 
hackneyed enough, but nothing can well be found more 
deserving of the phrase, and yet more entirely fresh and 
original, than the "Dedication" to Margaret of Savoy, the 
Queen of Italy, and the "Preface" in black and gold, and 
red and blue letters, dated 1881, both included in the atlas- 
folio volumes. They were designed from manuscripts in 
the Royal Marciana Library. We may undoubtedly 
accord to the work the praise of its being a monument of 
modern graphic art worthy of the great treasure it 
illustrates. 

As may be surmised from our observations, the text 
forms but a small portion of the whole work. It is given 
in Italian, with parts in Italian and French, and some 
portions in an English translation as well. The reading 
is very curious, and from the historical documents may 
be gathered many disturbing accounts of how narrowly the 
Basilica has from time to time escaped injury from would- 
be benefactors. About the year 1000 a Doge who had 
offended the populace took refuge in Saint Mark's, where 
he defied the people, who besieged him in the church, routed 
him out, and destroyed the Basilica by fire and pillage. 
This outrage and public wrong was righted by Doge Pietro 
Orseolo, who set about rebuilding the fabric out of his own 



102 HITHEK AND THITHER. 

property. It was a noble work, nobly executed, but in 
1731 the Senate discovered that the Doge, who had been 
subsequently canonized, had not even a chapel or so much 
as an alt^r in his o^\^l Fane. This was bad, but worse 
remained, for the Venetians were at that time promised 
a gift of "the whole of the Saint's right ann," which was 
to be dispatched from France as a gift to the Republic. 
Instantly the question arose, "Where is the relic to lie?" 
Various reports were taken, officials consulted, this spot 
suggested and that rejected, almost everybody fortunately 
objecting on principle to everybody else's suggestions; but 
all uniting in protesting against the risk of tampering 
with an inch of existing mosaic. But more urgent news 
was received. The Republic was informed that two 
monks, charged with the relic were on their way, bring- 
ing to St. Mark's not only the Saint's right arm, but 
also "his thigh and his leg." Time did not permit the 
authorities to make an altar, much less a chapel ; and the 
procurators of the Basilica drew up the programme of the 
ceremony for the translation of the }X)rtions of the beatified 
Saint, The dean, in his pontifical vestments, accom- 
panied by the canons, the singers and other servants of the 
church, and by the procurators, were ordered to receive 
the relic and deposit it temporarily in the sacristy. At 
the same time details were decreed for its removal to an 
altar-chapel on the following "recurrence of the festival of 
"the Saint," when a solemn Te Deum and Mass was to be 
sung in the church, followed by vespers, and a solemn pro- 
cession in the Piazza, "with the greatest possible pomp," 
accompanied by salutes from the ships. Moreover, the 



SAINT MABK's^ VENICE. l03 

various schools or associations were to be required to attend 
and provide suitable allegorical figures or tableaux vivants 
''adapted to the occasion." Happily, however, with the 
reception of the relic and its temporary depositure in the 
Treasury, matters rested; and it is to be hoped, in the 
interest of this wonderful pile, that for all time this 
arrangement may remain undisturbed. 



Haverford College. 



Haverford College. 



THE history of Haverford College^ for the first sixty 
years of its existence, prepared by a committee of 
the Alumni Association, consists of an introd\ie- 
tory account of the preparation of the work, an amusingly- 
written proem, and nineteen chapters in which various 
members of the association have related the gi-owth of the 
college, each writer treating of a particular period or of 
some marked characteristic of the institution, the volume 
closing with an elaborate appendix, giving lists of the 
students, the members of the faculty, its officers and man- 
agers, the officers of the Alumni Association, and the 
orators, poets and prize-winners. JSTecessarily, the history 
is one of especial interest to those who have spent happy 
years within the precincts of the college, but it is also a 
book of general interest to those who value progress in 
educational centers. Like all books made up of con- 
tributed articles, it may, perhaps, lack some of the unities 
of form and sequence usual in a book compiled by a single 
winter, yet that very lack of unity is compensated for by 

^A History of Haverford College for the first sixty years of its 
existence. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1892. 



108 HITHER AND THITHEK. 

the many-sided views of the life and growth of the College, 
due to the collaboration of different writers. It was pro- 
posed as long since as 1877 to publish a descriptive and 
illustrated history of the College, from its beginning as a 
school to the pi*esent time; but after a good deal of hard 
work had been accomplished, the result proved "little or 
"nothing" having regard to what was wanted, and in 1884 
the intention was abandoned. The idea was revived in 
1888, and carried forward to a successful conclusion. 

The College had its origin in 1830, through the recogni- 
tion of the lack of education — especially of higher educa- 
tion — among Friends, and during that and the following 
year the subject w^as ventilated in the columns of The 
Friend, knowTi in latter times by double entendre as 
The Square Friend. Outlines of a plan for the establish- 
ment and maintenance of a Friends' central school were 
reduced to form, and from that time, through periods of 
trouble and even disaster, brightened by periods overflow- 
ing with promise, the institution has gi'own to its present 
proportions. It would be too long a story to relate how, 
from its small beginnings,^ the school gTew, sometimes 
prospering, more often failing, till at the end of the sum- 
mer of 1845 the regretful conclusion was reached that it 
would not be right, with the certain prospects of a large 
accumulation of debt, to continue the school after the close 
of that term. The time of disaster is not always one of 
apathy, and out of the greatness of tlie troubles which 
then weighed do^^^l the school arose a spirit of enthusiasm, 

* Opened Oct. 28, 1833, with twenty-one students, by the Haver- 
ford School Association, successor to the Friends' Central School 
Association. 



HAVEKFORD COLLEGE. 109 

in which the love of the old students for the home of their 
education showed itself in a highly practical form. A 
general call upon the Haverford students was made, by a 
self-constituted committee, to meet for an old-fashioned 
game of foot-ball and a meal in the old dining-room. The 
scheme was a "bold and novel one." On the appointed 
day the "foot-ball flew vigorously, as of yore ; married and 
"unmarried, farmers and men of merchandise, busy men 
"and idlers, all showing that what the cares of life had 
"taken from their youth was revived in breathing the air 
"of their old haunts." JSTo one could doubt what the result 
would be. A strong pull and a pull all together was 
resolved upon. Steps were taken to raise funds, and raised 
they were, so that in a few months Haverford was placed 
on a durable foundation. 

After a suspension of two years and eight months, the 
building was reopened in May, 1848. In a short time the 
school became a college,^ and although it has since passed 
through many periods of anxiety, "Haverford at sixty" 
was a solid institution. It is well remarked by the writer 
who deals with the subject in the History, that colleges are 
"not money-making concerns, but money-spending," that 
"a college flourishes at the cost of its treasury, its profit- 
"and-loss account is all debit." Inasmuch as it can spend 
any amount of money in adding to its educational re- 
sources, it follows that probably "no class of institutions 
"is more hungry for money or more constantly poor." And 
summing up the position in four words, "Haverford is 
"no exception." Her endowment, however, has slowly 

* 1856. 



110 HITHBR AND THITHER. 

but steadily gro^\n, until she has now $220,000 invested 
funds, besides an amount estimated roughly at $600,000 
in buildings, lands, library, museum and appliances. 

Founded and managed by Friends and on Friends' 
principles, the restrictions imposed on the students were 
somewhat stricter than those which prevail in the gener- 
ality of schools and colleges; but these, both as to courses 
of education and in the recognized sports, have been modi- 
fied from time to time. The subject of lighting proved a 
matter of much debate. Gas was at one time regarded as 
a very questionable improvement. It is recorded that no 
less a person than Horace Binney, the Philadelphia 
lawyer, denounced its use in schools and such like build- 
ings as criminal, in that it would lead to endless conflagra- 
tions and explosions. It was not until 1852 that the 
buildings generally were lighted with gas, and in J^^ovember 
of that year the managers expressed their belief that, with 
attention to the management of the works, it would prove 
an economical light. In 1865, it was proved that Mr. 
Binney's fears had some justification, for in the course 
of that winter a gas meter, under the stairs, by the dining- 
room, exploded, injuring several of the students. At 
that time the splendor of electricity as a common illu- 
minator was not thought of. But beyond lessons, gas and 
dress, a huger question created much discussion. Boys 
may learn or they may not; but, eat they must. The 
senior class Avas entitled to a lunch of pie, and precedent 
had established that in a short five minutes' recess at 
eleven in the forenoon each senior's allowance, fixed "at 
"90 degrees of circumference," should be fetched by the 



HAVERFOKD COLLEGE. 



Ill 



"scavenger" or class deputy from the kitchen. 'Now, four 
pies to a class of thirteen gave three extra pieces, and these 
were usually retained by the "scavenger." The writer 
in the "History," Avho touches upon the matter, states 
"with regi-et" that this luncheon was abolished by act of 
faculty in 1872, and adds that a cruel slander was spread 
to the effect that the act was brought about through 
the too g-reat love of pie manifested by the class of '72. 
That class is called "much slandered," for though they 
were "young, turbulent and ridiculous," they were not 
bad at heart. Perhaps the truth has been missed. Is 
it not more reasonable to think that the act proceeded 
from a feeling of mercy in the minds of the faculty toward 
the scavenger, who must have imperiled his life in devour- 
ing three such pieces of pie a day ? 

Music, also, was a sore point. It was not exactly encour- 
aged by the college authorities, but by 1876 it had received 
sufficient attention to let the students boast of possessing 
quite a respectable quartette, with some additional talent 
for the choruses. When, however, instrumental music 
was attempted by an overzealous pupil, who tried flute- 
playing in his bed, the aj)pearance in the doorway of a kind 
and familiar face gazing long and sadly upon him caused 
him to cease. As the reproachful face withdrew the ears 
of the offending student were assailed with the laconic 
rebuke "And thee's a Friend's child." In earlier days, 
when all music was under ban, it "happened" that the 
simple jewsharp would find its way in. As each harp 
was confiscated as soon as detected, it is a curious problem 
what became of the barrelful of harps that had been 



112 HITHEE AND THITHER. 

gathered from the lovers of the charm which "soothes the 
"savage breast." 

The contests in cricket were mighty and numerous. 
The game was introduced at Haverford in 1836 by an 
English gardener named William Carvill, and "it is 
"thought that at Haverford College cricket ^vas first 
"learned by Americans and adopted as a game." The 
successes and defeats of the College teams, however, are 
too generally known to require recitation. The records of 
"the famous seven hit" by Howard Comfort and a hun- 
dred other incidents of the College matches are given and 
dwelt upon with pride, but the ingenious student who tried 
to save labor, yet provide sport or at least practice, by 
inventing a "catapult bowler," so that cricket could be 
practiced with as few players as are required for a game of 
solitaire, met with failure, for the catapult refused to 
work. ^Nevertheless, Haverford cricket has continued to 
triumph. 

The library, it appears, is a growing and increasingly 
valuable adjunct. It numbers over thirty thousand 
volumes. A list of the rare and curious books is given, 
among which may be mentioned fac-similes of the three 
great codices of the Bible, the Codex Alexandrinus, the 
Codex Vaticanus and the Codex Sinaiticus. 

The "History" has some sixty well-executed illustra- 
tions, including views of the principal points of interest 
connected with the buildings, and twenty-one portraits of 
the more notable of its presidents and patrons. 



Dr. Sommers 
Le Morte Darthur.'' 



a 



Dr. Sommer's 
Le Morte Darthur." 



IT is remarkable that it should have been reserved to a 
Prussian scholar to produce the monumental reprint 
"Le Morte Darthur," ^ which was published 1889- 
1891. As a specimen of tyjjography, this work has few 
equals, and Dr. Sommer, as the result of four years' almost 
continuous labor, effected, thanks to the German Govern- 
ment, who granted three subsidies, a result which must 
delight all bibliophiles, and at the same time reflect the 
gTcatest credit upon himself. The first volume, covering 
eight hundred and sixty-two pages, is a reprint from Earl 
Spencer^s copy, printed page for page and line for line. 
Only two copies of Caxton's editio princeps of 1485 are 
extant. That belonging to Lord Spencer was acquired at 
Lloyd's sale in 1816 for £325, but lacks eleven leaves, 
which were replaced by fac-simile leaves executed from 
the only other copy in existence, which, after belonging to 

^Le Morte Darthur. By Syr Thomas Malory. The original 
edition of William Caxton now reprinted and edited with an intro- 
duction and glossary by H. Oskar Sommer, Ph.D., with an essay on 
Malory's prose style by Andrew Lang, M. A. London: David Nutt 
(3 vols.), 1889-1891. 



116 HITHER AND THITHER. 

the Harleian collection, was sold to the Earl of Jersey, 
and was one of the gems of the library at Osterley Park. 
This copy is perfect, and on the death of the owner came 
into the market, when a spirited contest for its ownership 
naturally ensued. The British Mnsenm bid £1,800 for it, 
but there stopped. The prize fell to Mrs. Abby E. Pope, 
of Brooklyn, N. Y., who paid £1,950 and became the 
envied owner of the volume. 

The Caxton edition is printed in black letter, and the 
type throughout is that described by Mr. Blades as 4*. 
The volume has no title-page, the lines are spaced out 
to an even length of 4% inches, and thirty-eight lines make 
a full page.^ It is without folios, headlines or catchwords, 
and the initial letters are printed from v.^ood. Those to 
"Books" are ornamental letters five lines high, the initials 
to "Chapters" being only three lines high. Dr. Sommer 
has used handsome Koman type in lieu of black letters, 
but at the beginning of volume I, has provided the reader 
with a fac-simile of page 75 from Earl Spencer's copy. 
The next edition after Caxton's was printed by Wynkyn de 
Worde in 1498, in folio, and Lord Spencer OA\med the only 
known copy. Of a second edition by the same celebrated 
printer, dated 1529, the only existing copy, known as 
Archdeacon Wrangham's, has been acquired by the British 
Museum. The Earl Spencer collection is now the 
property of the Manchester Public Library, in England. 
Only nine other reprints prior to Sommer's were published, 
of which the best known are Southey's edition of 1817 and 

* A few pages hare less than thirty-eight lines and some have 
thirty-nine. 



LE MORTE DAE.THUE. 117 

Mr. Thomas Wright's two editions of 1856 and 1866, 
included in the "Library of Old Authors."^ 

Volumes II and III of Sommer's edition contain the 
critical and literary portion of his work, and also Mr. 
Lang's essay. One of the most valuable contributions in 
these volumes consists of a "List of liames and Places" 
in the "Morte Darthur," being the "first complete and 
"critical index" to this work ever published. In it are 
from eight hundred and fifty to one thousand names which 
occur in the text. It is printed in seventy-four double 
columns, and an idea of its laborious character may be 
gathered from noticing that Arthur fills eight, Galahad 
three, Launcelot seven, and Tristram six columns 
respectively. 

The literary value of the "Origin of English Romance" 
has been variously estimated. Sir Walter Scott styles it 
the best of all English romances, but old Roger Ascham, 
the Latin secretary or tutor of Queen Elizabeth, judged 
otherwise. He was a learned man, and while the Queen 
paid him a salary of £20 a year only for his services, she 
nevertheless "esteemed him highly;" for on his death she 
declared she "would rather have lost £10,000 than her 
"tutor, Ascham." In his well-known "Toxophilus,"^ and 
also his' "Scholemaster,"^ he discusses these books of 
"cheuvelrie." In the latter work he remarks of the "Morte 
"d' Arthur," "The whole pleasure of this booke standeth in 

^ A Series of Rare Works Collected and Printed under the Title of 
"Library of Old Authors." London: John Russell Smith. 1856, etc. 
61 vols., 8vo. 

- 4to., 1545. Ascham's works are accessible in the "Library of Old 
"Authors" ( 4 vols. ) . 

^Svo, 1570. Printed posthumously. 



118 HITHER AND THITHER. 

"two especyall poyntes in open mans slaghter and bolde 
"bawdrie, in which booke those be counted the noblest 
"knights that doe kill most men without any qnarrell and 
"commit foulest adoulteries by sutlest shiftes." Mr. Gil- 
roy, more recently, well said that Malory's rimiance is as 
truly the epic of the English, as the Iliad is the epic of the 
Greek mind. The Arthurian romances have been a glean- 
ing ground for many of our greatest poets and writers ; 
notably Spenser in "The Faerie Queene ;•' Tennyson in 
"The Idylls of the King;" Swinburne in his "Trystram of 
"Lyonesse;" Arnold in his "Tristram and Iseult," and 
Morris in his "Defence of Guenevere." 

Of Sir Thomas Malory little is known. He was a 
knight and an amateur antiquary, bom about 1430, and 
completed his compilation fifteen years before Caxton 
printed it. Caxton finished printing the book in the abbey 
of Westminster on the last day of July, 1485, a work 
which he had undertaken, he tells us, at the request of 
"many noble and dyvers gentylmen of the royame of 
"England." Malory was a compiler rather than an author, 
yet it should be remembered that he did not servilely 
copy his originals, but, after studying the various versions, 
impressed upon the whole the stamp of his own indi- 
viduality, and in doing this combined English and French 
romances. 

The source of each portion of the cycle of romances^ has 

^Richard Jones in his "Growth of the Idylle of the King" (1894), 
says: "It appears that five great cycles of legends. — 1, the Arthur, 
"Guinevere, and Merlin cycle; 2, the Round Table cycle; 3, the 
"Lancelot cycle ; 4, the Holy Grail cycle ; 5, the Tristan cycle, — at first 
"developed independently, were later connected together about the 
"mediseval hero, King Arthur. Even to run through all the available 
"versions of the related legends is the task of a lifetime," 



LE MOETE DARTHUR. 119 

been traced with great skill by Dr. Sommer to different 
manuscripts, but from Avhence the several romances were 
originally drawn by the writers of these manuscripts is 
still a fertile source for debate. During the fifth century 
a colony of Britons took refuge in Armorica from the 
Saxons, and the memory of Arthur and his knights \vas 
preserved there, as fresh as in Wales or CornAvall. Hun- 
dreds of minstrels seem to have composed or adapted a 
variety of poems relating incidents, now familiar to readers 
of Arthurian romance, and out of these, again, grew prose 
romances,^ In this way their origin is, in one sense, as 
disputable as is the source of Macpherson's "Ossian." 
The question of Gildas, an historian of the sixth century, 
styled by Gibbon "The British Jeremiah," and K'ennius, 
who is alleged, in the ninth century, to have written his 
jejune "N^arrative" in the form of dry epitome, cannot 
be discussed here. There is little doubt, however, that the 
legends of Arthur belonged originally to South Wales, but 
were modified by incidents and elements afterwards intro- 
duced into them. 

When we come to Geoffrey of Monmouth, who wrote his 
celebrated "Historia" or "Chronicon" in the twelfth 
century, we are on much safer ground. According to his 
own statement, he received in 1128 a manuscript from one 
Walter Galenius, an archdeacon of Oxford, who in that 
century traveled in Brittany and collected the legends 
subsequently worked up by Geoffrey into his "true history" 
of the Britons. According to Polydore Vergil, who is fol- 

*As C. F. Keary remarks in the Diet, of Nat. Biog., the bibli- 
ography ©f the mythic Arthur is almost infinite. 



120 HITHEE AND THITHEK. 

lowed by many writers, Geoffrey invented many of the 
legends lie purposed to translate, but, be this as it may, his 
"Chronicon" is one of the corner-stones of romance. There 
is little doubt that he is responsible for much embellish- 
ment of the stories he narrated. He scorned to be bound 
by simple facts of history, and tells us, with dry humor, 
that he left records of such mere details as names, dates 
and places to his friends and contemporaries. Caradoc of 
Llancarvan, William of Malmesbury and Henry of Hunt- 
ingdon reveled, it is true, in the ancient history of the 
kings of the Britons, but "he alone had the precious book 
"which he had taken care to translate." Monsieur Paulin 
Paris will not admit that any Calenius manuscript ever 
existed, and many agree in thinking that it has no more 
actuality than the "Old Plays," out of which Sir Walter 
Scott so happily "invented" quotations, as headings for 
chapters of his novels. 

The Arthur legends, as we have them, practically origi- 
nated in Geoffrey's "Historia," published 1138, and repub- 
lished 1147, but only in a partial form, for no mention was 
then made of the Round Table. That was introduced a few 
years later in Wace's "History of the Britons," published 
1155, and travelers, when they visit Winchester, in Eng- 
land, are regaled to the present day by a sight of the very 
table, round which Arthur and his favorite twelve knights 
sat. If any incredulous visitor should remark that it does 
not in the least resemble the accounts of the table made by 
Merlin, as given in the romances, nor any known record 
of the smaller table to seat thirteen ; he will be silent when 
he is told that Henry VIII. showed the Winchester table 



I.B MORTB DARTHUK. 121 

to Francis I., and stated "that it was the one used by the 
"British King." 

After Geoffrey's time the legend grew apace, and many 
additions were made by Layamon, Wace and Walter Mapes 
or Map. Up to this point chivalry and routs had mainly 
characterized the romances. Walter Map transformed 
the whole cycle by the infusion of Lancelot and the quest 
of the Holy Grail, which stands out as the main subject of 
the romances collected by Malory.^ The Grail was a sacred 
vessel originally presented by Solomon to the Queen of 
Sheba; or, if not so old, it was the dish which twenty 
centuries ago our Lord used at the Last Supper. Being 
stolen by one of Pilate's servants, it was next used by the 
Governor when he publicly washed his hands at the time 
of the Crucifixion, after which it was presented to St. 
Joseph of Arimathsea, who collected in it the Blood which 
flowed from the five wounds of the Saviour. It was alleged 
that it had been carried to Heaven, but in 1101 it was cap- 
tured by the Genoese and Pisan crusaders at Cesarea, and 
the former resigned to the Pisans all other booty in con- 
sideration of being awarded this one treasure. It was 
preserved with great reverence in the Sacristy of San 
Lorenzo, at Genoa, till 1809, when the French seized it 
and carried it to Paris, from whence it was returned to 
San Lorenzo by the allies in 1815. It was supposed to have 
been made of a single piece of emerald, and as early as 

^At least, writes Prof. Saintsbury in "The Flourishing of 
"Romance and the Rise of Allegory" (1897), "it may be asserted with 
"the utmost confidence that it has not been proved that he did not." 
If we accept Map, we, of course, deny the claims of Robert de Borron 
and Chrestieu de Troyea. 



122 HITHER AND THITHEB. 

1500 it was decreed tliat to make experiments upon it by 
touch of gold, stones, coral or any other substance, to test 
its composition, should be punishable by death. On its 
restoration, in 1815, the Sacro Catino, as it is now desig- 
nated, was so tightly packed that it was broken between 
Turin and Genoa, but the glass fragments have been 
exquisitely refitted and secured by beautiful gold filigi*ee 
work, and it is one of the most treasured relics of Italy. 

At the end of book XVII of the "Morte Darthur," 
Caxton writes: "Thus endeth thistory of the Sancgreal 
"that was breuely drawen oute of the Frensshe in to 
"Englysshe, the whiche is a story cronycled for one of the 
"truest and the holyest that is in thys worlde." 

Many writers have seen in Malory's Galahad, Percival, 
Sir Bors de Ganis (or Wales) and Lancelot the antitypes 
of the Bunyan heroes. Christian, Faithful and Hopeful, 
and some have read in them Malory's testimony to the sor- 
rows of Henry II, Malory's Lancelot is a truer picture 
of human character, under the form of a fictitious hero, 
than many that w^ould satisfy modern analysts. The 
romancist depicts a pupil of Merlin, who is at warfare with 
his own flesh ; but whose sins render it impossible for him 
to fully achieve the quest. The gentle Sir Galahad par- 
takes of the wonderful food, but when Sir Lancelot enters 
through the door where the Grail is, it is as though he was 
burned by fire, so that he lies for twenty-four days and 
twenty-four nights as though he was dead. After again 
falling into sin he repents, and in sorrow creeps to his 
grave without any marvelous conversion or periods of 
exaltation. He becomes a hermit and afterwards a priest ; 



LE MOETE DARTHTJR. 123 

and in a quiet life of prayer and preaching sings his daily 
mass till, in gentle hopefulness, he is gathered to his rest. 
The story is all the truer because a peaceful end is the lot 
of the majority of mankind. 



Sevres Porcelain. 



Sevres Porcelain. 



THE purchase of Sevres' porcelain lias always been 
reserved to the wealthy, for the simple reason that 
no other persons can aiford to buy it. Those 
who appreciate this porcelain can thoroughly enjoy 
themselves while examining a splendid volume in folio 
size, published by John C. Nimmo, of London, entitled 
''The Soft Porcelain of Sevres," ^ with an historical intro- 
duction by Edouard Garnier. The treatise of thirty-two 
pages is illustrated by fifty plates, representing two hun- 
dred and fifty water-color subjects. The Chinese claim 
to have made porcelain for more than two thousand 
years, but it was not known how to make it in Europe 
until the seventeenth century. Monsieur Garnier cur- 
sorily notices the introduction of Chinese porcelain into 
Europe by the Venetians in the fourteenth century, when 
from its beauty and novelty a very general belief pre- 
vailed that it was possessed of magic qualities. A little 
later the Portuguese and the Dutch introduced the pre- 
cious ware, and whilst the novelty wore off, and it was 

^The Soft Porcelain of Sfevres, with an historical introduction by 
Edouard Garnier. London: John C. Nimmo, 1892. 



128 HITHEB AND THITHEB. 

ascertained what the Chinese put into it, still its manu- 
facture could not be accomplished in Europe because the 
requisite kaolin or white clay which constituted the porce- 
lain paste had not been found in European countries. 
About 1709 or 1711 a man named Bottger, "who was try- 
''ing to find out the secret of porcelain-making for the 
"Elector of Saxony," discovered the location of the neces- 
sary materials by an expedient of his valet, who, for want 
of the proper hair powder to dress his master's wig, had 
used instead a kind of white powdered clay he had found 
in the neighborhood. M. Bottger was astonished at the 
unusual weight of his Avig, and having questioned his 
servant, proceeded out of a not unnatural curiosity to 
examine the clay, when, to his delight, he found that it was 
the true kaolin or hard porcelain. Quickly a factory was 
established at Meissen, a few miles from Dresden, and the 
porcelain then and since made there is generally called 
"Dresden." The discovery, however, of "soft" porcelain 
had been made in France several years previously, in 1695, 
near Limoges, although nearly twenty-five years elapsed 
before its right use was attained. In porcelain the terms 
hard and soft are intended to express the capability of 
resisting heat when the finished ware is submitted to the 
process of "firing,"^ and the "old Sevres" comprises only 
"soft" porcelain manufactured prior to about 1770, after 
which date Sevres china was made of "hard" clay. The 
volume by E'immo relates to the former ware. 

The styles of "Sevres" are broadly divided into three 
classes, the Pompadour or Kocaille, 1753-1763; the style 

'Gamier (note to page 23). 



SEVRES PORCELAIN-. 129 

Louis Quinze, 1763-1786, and the style Louis Seize, 1786- 
1893. JSTearly every class of article has been made of 
porcelain, including entire tables, clocks and candelabra, 
while in 1780 Mademoiselle Beaupre, an actress, appeared 
in a carriage of which the panels consisted of exquisitely- 
painted porcelain. The cost of choice specimens is almost 
fabulous, for not only was its manufacture the work of 
skilled artisans, but the best artists were employed in 
the coloring and decoration ; yet time and again the plaques 
and vases broke in the process of "firing," frequently three 
or four of these expensive gems of art being destroyed 
to one that came safely through the furnace. ISTaturally, 
frauds of all kinds have been perpetrated, and had the 
Sevres factory been five times its actual size, and had 
ceaseless work been carried on, still its output would have 
fallen far short of the amount offered for sale in the 
market. It is, therefore, a ticklish task to turn collector 
of old Sevres, and a purchaser needs much knowledge. 

One of the oldest and most amusing frauds was the pre- 
sentation in 1814 to TiOuis XVIII. of a splendid Sevres 
dejeuner service, with medallion portraits of Louis XIV. 
and celebrated persons of his court. It was used at the 
Tuileries for two years before the deception was discovered. 
The service was at last "suspected" by a connoisseur and 
sent to headquarters for examination, when it was promptly 
condemned ; and the King "having no further use for it," it 
has been pilloried in a case at the Musee Ceramique as an 
example of "fraudulent imitation." 

The manufacture in France has always been under 
royal patronage, and in 1740 two workmen named Dubois, 

9 



130 HITHER AND THITnT-It. . 

who had previously been engaged at Chantilly, proposed to 
Monsieur Orry de Fulvy, brother to Philibert Orry, 
Comptroller of Finance under I-ouis XV., to reveal to 
him the secret of the composition paste. Desiring to rival 
the Dresden manufacture, a factory was started at Vin- 
cennes, but after three years' experiments and the expendi- 
ture of sixty thousand francs the brothers Dubois were 
discharged "for bad conduct," and the scheme languished. 
Madame de Pompadour, however, stepped into the breach 
and recommended the King to take the matter into his 
own hands and save the large sums that went out of France 
to purchase Dresden china. The King was nothing loth, 
and M. Orry de Fulvy having ''purchased the secret" from 
a Monsieur Gravant, who had for some time been at the 
factory under the Dubois, a "company was formed under 
"the name of Adam,"^ his name being used to conceal that 
of the other real proprietors. A capital of three hundred 
and fifty thousand livres was provided, of which the King 
contributed one hundred thousand, and, under the director- 
ship of Monsieur Boileau, the venture was crowned with 
success. Improvements of various kinds were introduced 
into the manufacture, and the services of eminent chemists, 
artists, painters and modellers were secured. Things went 
more or less smoothly for a while, but so many complaints 
were made of attempted frauds that Louis XV., becoming 
weary, in 1760 bought up the establishment and "became 
"sole proprietor, continuing M. Boileau as director." The 
King and Madame de Pompadour used to visit the factory 
every week, and the latter, who was a skilled artist herself, 

^This was 1745. In 1753 the factory was transferred from Vin- 
cennes to Sfevres. 



SEVRES POECELAIN^. 131 

often colored some of the tasteful specimens of manu- 
facture, and even molded some of the cups and vases with 
her own fingers. One table presented by the King to the 
Comtesse du Nord cost the large sum of seventy-five thou- 
sand livres. The story is told that at Chateau de Belle Vue 
the Marquise de Pompadour during one winter received the 
King in a room opening into a conservatory filled with 
exquisite blooms which shed around delicious perfumes. 
The King desired to pluck one lovely flower, but found that 
the bloom and its fellows were made of porcelain, watered 
with sweet-smelling essences. Louis in this instance was 
deceived, as in another way was the artist who tried to 
brush from an oil painting a fly painted by Quentin 
Matsys. The King, in his delight, ordered from the fac- 
tory flowers for Belle Vue and his own palaces, to the 
value of eight hundred thousand livres, if the continuation 
of the story may be believed. 

In 1778 Catherine II. of Russia ordered and paid for a 
service of seven hundred and forty-four pieces, costing 
three hundred and twenty-eight thousand, one hundred 
and eighty-eight livres, or nearly $200,000. This service 
had a curious history. At a fire in one of the palaces 
one hundred and sixty of the pieces were stolen, and 
afterwards sold in England. The Emperor Nicholas heard 
of the pieces and repurchased them, restoring them to 
Eussia about the year 1852. The old buildings at Sevres 
were erected in 1756, when the works were transferred 
from Vincennes and purchased by Louis XV., but new 
buildings have been added and the old much improved. 
They now belong to the State. 



132 HITHER AND THITHER. 

ISText to taking the drive from Paris to Sevres, and 
spending a couple of hours in examining the splendid col- 
lection there gathered together, the most enjoyable thing 
is to have such a volume as that provided by M. Garnier, 
over which to sit in a cosy arm-chair and pore at one's 
leisure. It may be invidious, where all the plates are 
so good, to single out any two or three in particular, 
but if a choice is to be made the three desei-ving special 
notice seem to be the frontispiece, a tray with the mono- 
gram of Madame du Barry, painted by Asselin, and 
plates 11 and 25, depicting two exquisite vases, one the 
well-known Vaisseau a Mat, or masted vessel, executed in 
1752, and reproduced in most of the text-books on porce- 
lain, and the other a Vase aux Colombes, both in the 
possession of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild. 



Liturgical Manuscripts. 



Liturgical Manuscripts. 



IN^ the Free Library of Philadelphia are preserved 
fourteen Choir Books written on parchment during 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which for- 
merly belonged to various convents of religious orders in 
Portugal. The original bindings have been preserved, and 
deserve particular attention. They have, in some parts, 
been subjected to necessary repairs. The majority are thick 
boards, covered with stamped bro^^mi calf leather, having 
the bosses, clasps and chiselled corners complete, while the 
metal ornamentations are varied. The largest volume 
measures 30 by 22, and the smallest 20 by 14 inches. They 
are fine specimens of Portuguese caligraphy, and at least 
two of the earliest of them were gifts of King John III. of 
Portugal to Portuguese convents. He reigned between 
the years 1521 and 1557, and is celebrated in history for 
having colonized Brazil and being the King under whose 
auspices Japan was discovered. He established the 
Inquisition in Portugal. 

The books give a pleasant insight to PortugTiese scrip- 
torial art of that date, many of the illuminated borders to 
the great folio leaves being very handsome. The initial 



136 HITHER AND THITHEB. 

letters are in some instances miniatured or historiated, and 
scattered through the volumes will be found hundreds of 
capital letters in colors and in gold. Some details con- 
nected with each volume are hereafter given, attention 
being especially called to number seven, not copied by the 
pen, but executed by means of stencil letters. It has been 
asserted, and probably with truth, that in none of the 
Portuguese cathedrals will be found a collection as com- 
plete as this, of the liturgical monuments of the national 
worship. As might be expected, bibliomaniacs have not 
hesitated to injure some of the books by cutting out por- 
tions of the decorations. More than enough remains, how- 
ever, in every volume, to make it a matter of congratulation 
that so fine a set of liturgical volumes has been secured 
for a public library. 

In every cathedral and monastery in foreign countries 
there will be generally found a large lectern in the center 
of the choir, on which is placed a book similar to one of 
these. They contain portions of the Mass not sung by the 
Priest or by the Great Choir. In them will be found, there- 
fore, Introits, Graduals, Alleluias, Offertories and other 
portions of the Office, which are usually sung by four or 
more Cantors, who, vested in copes, group themselves 
around the lectern and sing in the Gregorian or Plain 
Chant those portions of the Mass which change according 
to the season. Some of the books are mainly for use on 
Perial or ordinary days, to which there is no special Office 
or music attached. In other volumes the Gregorian or 
Plain Chant settings, suitable for Great Feasts and Fast 
Days, are found. It need hardly be mentioned that the 



LITURGICAL MANUSCRIPTS. 13Y 

music is mainly written on the old fonr-line staff, with 
square, diamond and tailed-square Gregorian notes. 

Number I: A Sancturale according to the Order of 
St. Jerome. From the colophon, it appears that this book 
of Divine Offices was completed in the month of June, 
1548, while Father Blasius D'Olivenga was rector of the 
College, and the expenses are stated to have been borne by 
King John III. 

The volume consists of one hundred and eighty-nine 
folios, of which six (152, 158, 159, 181, 184 and 185) 
are lacking. Many of the pages have been cut, but care- 
fully mended. 

On page 1 is a large border of flowers and arabesques 
in gold and in colors; part, however, has been cut away. 
In the center of the bottom of the border are the arms of 
some Cardinal, the arms themselves having been effaced. 

The initial letter V[nus] on folio 1 deserves careful 
notice, and on the verso of folio 151 is a very handsome 
historiated initial letter S[ancti], showing St. Jerome 
kneeling before a crucifix. 

The volume is written in a large, Gothic hand, in red 
and black, and has the Plain Chant notation throughout. It 
contains a thousand initial letters, of which more than 
nine hundred are red, some blue and the remainder black. 

Father Blasius D'Olivenga, was Friar of the celebrated 
Convent of Belem, near Lisbon. This magnificent church 
was founded by King Emmanuel in honor of the discovery 
of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco 
de Gama. Later D'Olivenga was made Provincial of the 
Order of Saint Jerome in Portugal. 



138 HITHER AND THITHER. 

The binding is well preserved. 

!N"uniber II : A Dominicale according to the Order of 
St. Jerome. 

The Dominicale is a book in which is contained the 
lections and other matter belonging to the Office for Sun- 
days and Dominical Festivals. At the end of the volume 
it is stated in the colophon that this book of Divine Offices 
was completed in the month of June, 1548 (like Xumber 
I), during the rectorship of Father Blasius D'Olivenga, 
the terms being the same as in the colophon to Xumber 
I ; and it is added that the expenses were borne bv King 
John III. of Portugal. 

This volume consists of one hundred and sixty-three 
folios. The principal decoration can be found on page 1, 
of which part of an elaborate border is still preserved, and 
there is a large initial letter E [cce] . 

About eleven hundred initial letters will be found in the 
volume, in red or in blue, of the same artistic character as 
the letters in Volume I. In this volume, however, no 
Plain Chant is given. It will be noticed that a delicate 
floriated decoration will be found in the margins to accom- 
pany each of the beautiful initial letters. These are much 
varied. Folios 4 and 5 of the original on parchment are 
wanting, and in their stead two folios of paper of the same 
period, have been inserted with the text in black, but with- 
out initial letters. 

Number III: A book of Offices, opening with the 
special matter for the Vigil of the K"ativity. Unfor- 
tunately, the last leaf has been mutilated and the lower 
half cut away and replaced by a piece of paper of the 



LITURGICAL MANUSCRIPTS. ^ 139 

period in which the volume was apparently written. It 
will be noticed on some of the earlier folios, 2, 3, 4, 26, 
etc., that to adapt the volume to the u.se of some particular 
church, in which the responses were not the same as those 
written out by the scribe, others written on strips have 
been tipped in with gum and placed over the original 
writing. There are really one hundred and ninety-three 
folios in the volume, although, according to the pagination, 
there should be 203, but through an error the scribe has 
jumped from 187 to 198. The writing is beautifully 
done, and is of the same style as l^umbers I and II. Of 
the initial letters, three hundred and two are in black and 
one hundred and sixty in red or in blue. 

The initial letter on the first folio R[ex] is miniatured, 
and shows the Holy Family on the steps of a porticoed 
building. Saint Mary is adoring the Infant Christ sur- 
rounded by an ox, St. Joseph, the ass, etc. 

There is a particularly well executed large initial letter 
Z[elu9] on the verso of folio 58. The gold and blue are 
fresh and attractive. The filigree decorations of some of 
the initial letters, especially those depicting flowers, are 
elaborate and worthy of examination. 

Number IV: A Ferial Book written in the sixteenth 
century, commencing with the particular matter used in 
the Mass sung on the Saturday before Quadragesima. 
There are one hundred and eighty-six folios, paginated 
1 to 44, 88 to 187 and 189 to 216 (after which some pages 
are apparently wanting), followed by fourteen unnum- 
bered folios. There does not seem to be any omission, and 
probably the pagination is at fault. There certainly seems 



140 HITHER AND THITHER. 

no folio missing between 187 and 189, and if there were 
any between folios 44 and 88, they must have been 
removed or omitted at the time when the volume was 
bound. The three principal initial letters are: T[unc] 
on folio 1, A[lleluya] folio 88, and S[acerdos] folio 150. 
The last is, by far, the best of the three. 

There are two himdred and ninety-four initial letters 
in red or in blue, and seventy-four in black. One of the 
clasps is wanting. 

Number V: A Ferial Book for use on ordinary days 
from Easter to Pentecost. It rather unusually commences 
with the Plain Song for the Kyrie, Gloria in Excelsis, 
Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei, followed by the 
Asperges. The pagination is on the reverse of each folio. 
The volume contains two hundred and twenty-nine folios, 
and the writing belongs to the end of the sixteenth century. 

There are four hundred and forty-four initial letters, 
with six large letters in gold and in colors. These are 
curious, and have arabesque ornaments. They are on the 
following folios: A[d] on folio 2, P[uer] on folio 22, 
H(i)[esu] on folio 155, V[iri] on folio 176, S[piritus] 
on folio 181, and B[cnedicta] on folio 189. The execu- 
tion of these is more curious than beautiful. 

The brass corner bindings are very small. 

Number VI: A Graduale, in a very good state of 
preservation. The brass ornaments are well preserved. 
Strictly, a Graduale is the anthem or hymn sung after the 
Epistle and before the Gospel. At an early time it ceased 
to be sung at the altar, and was sung at the lectors' ambo. 

At the end of the volume is given an index, arranged in 



LITURGICAL MANUSCRIPTS. 141 

alphabetical order, showing where can be found the 
Introits, Graduals, Alleluias, Offertories and Communions 
contained in the volume. After these, on folio 188, is 
given the Asperges, with notation. The volume contains 
one hundred and ninety-one folios, of which folio 123 has 
been cut out, as also has the lower half of folio 185. 

The writing may be compared with N'umber IV, being 
of about the same date. 

There are two hundred and seventy-six initial letters in 
colors, with two large ones worthy of careful examination. 
M[ihi] on folio 1, showing St. Andrew with his cross, and 
G[audeam] on folio 86. 

ISTumber VII: Measures 29 by 22 inches, and is the 
"Common of the Apostles and Evangelists except at Easter- 
"tide" ; that is to say, the service book used on Feasts of 
Apostles and Evangelists for which no special responses 
were provided. 

It is stated that it was executed by Brother Emmanuel, 
of the Most Holy Trinity, a monk of that monastery, in 
the year 1787. It is an unusually large book, and has 
apparently been executed by stencils. 

There are ninety-nine folios with initials in red, and a 
very interesting series of three vigTiettes executed by the 
pen on folios 1, 12 and 48. The vignette on folio 1 has 
never been completed, as the title of the book has not been 
inserted in the large space in the center apparently reserved 
for it. At the foot are pictures of some of the monks 
engaged at work, with two boxes of stencil plates appro- 
priated to the upper and lower cases respectively. The 
second vignette is at the foot of folio 12, and is apparently 



142 HITHER AND THITHER. 

an allegorical sketch of Adam and Eve and the apple, after 
the Fall. In the center is a head, probably of one of the 
cherubim, from whose mouth pours forth a stream of fire. 
The sketch is evidently not completed. The third vignette 
is on page 48. It is very conventional. 

dumber VIII : A manuscript of the seventeenth 
century. On the last folio has been gummed in a list of 
the particular festivals between the Vigil of Saint 
Andrew and the Feast of Saint Michael, for which special 
responses have been provided and noted in this volume. 

The volume consists of eighty-eight folios, and the execu- 
tion of the scribe is not remarkable. 

Number IX: This volume is of great size, and is a 
beautiful specimen of the work of the scribe, but, unfor- 
tunately, the first and last folios are vv'anting. It is a book 
of the sixteenth century, has one hundred and forty folios, 
and two hundred and sixty-five initial letters in red or 
blue. The letters are variously patterned. 

Number X : This volume is apparently incomplete. 
Looking at folio 1, it seems clear that it was intended to 
put into this volume more than it now has, or else it formed 
a part of a larger work, of which the folios here bound 
together, formed a part. 

The writing is of the seventeenth century. 

It has three large initial letters in red and blue, with 
Arabic ornamentations, besides ninety-five initial letters 
in colors and two hundred and fifty in black. The initial 
letters are: C[reator] folio 5 verso, A[ve] folio 88, and 
E[xultet] folio 101. Both clasps are missing. 

Number XI: A Psalterium of the sixteenth century 
without the music. 



LITUKGICAL MANUSCRIPTS. 143 

It consists of one hundred and eighty-nine folios, of 
which folio 160 has been cut out, and apparently one or 
more folios are wanting at the end. 

The writing is beautiful, and there are seven large letters 
in many colors, with rich painted borders. 

The large letters are: B[eatus] on folio 8, D[ominus] 
on folio 38 verso, of which the border is veiy choice ; 
D[ixi] on folio 61 verso, D[ixit] on folio 80 verso, 
S[alvum] on folio 99, E[xultate] on folio 126, and 
C[antate] on folio 146. The rich borders add very much 
to the beauty of this book. 

ISTumber XII: A volume of the seventeenth century, 
which commences with the Asperges. It contains one hun- 
dred and eight folios, and has one hundred and five letters, 
colored and decorated with arabesque ornaments. 

At folio 87 is a comparatively modem but elaborate 
title-page, which commences the special Office for the Feast 
of Saint Anthony. 

The decoration is not very artistic, but it is elaborate, 
and before some of the colors became rubbed it may have 
been far more attractive than it now is. 

The initial letters are wanting in the usual ecclesiastical 
characteristics. For instance, the "P" on folio 90, and 
the two at the top of the verso of folio 93 and at the top 
of folio 94, where the artist apparently gives us a dryad 
and a mermaid. 

Two folios at the end have apparently been cut out, and 
one of the clasps is missing. 

ISTumber XIII : Consists of ninety-nine folios, of which 
folio 57 is wanting in the enumeration, but the catch word 



144 HITHEE AND THITHER. 

on folio 56 would seem to show that there is nothing miss- 
ing. There seem to be one or two folios wanting at the 
end. 

There are many initial letters in black, blue and red, 
which are elaborately ornamented with foliations at the 
side. On folio 70 verso, is a capital P[laceboJ, the 
center of the letter containing a skull bearing upon it a 
large cross. The bones of the skull are not anatomically 
well done. One of the clasps is missing. 

IsTumber XIV: A good specimen of the workmanship 
of the seventeenth century. There are a large number of 
initial letters in black, red and blue, and a large initial 
letter on folio 34, R.[ex]. It contains one hundred and 
seventeen folios. 



Six Greatest'' Books, 



Six ''Greatest" Books/ 



I. 

Of The Imitation of Christ. 



I WAS asked early in 1904 tO' say a few words in six 
numbers of a Philadelphia magazine^ on "Six 
"Greatest Books." I rashly said, "Certainly I Avill 
"do so," — the more rashly as I did not decide till after the 
promise was made on what books I would write. The 
task seemed easy, and taking a pencil and paper, I 
first put down the Bible, but concluded that ought to be 
omitted as standing in a pre-eminent class — one by itself. 
Then I came to a stop. 

What is meant by "greatest book ?" Is it a book that 
has given the author the gi'eatest labor to compose ? Is it a 
book that has done the most good ? Is it a book of which 
more copies have been sold and printed than others ? In 
what does greatness consist as connected with a book ? 

' "Six Great Books" was the title intended, but the printer willed 
otherwise. 

= "The Optimist." 



148 HITHER AND THITHEK. 

If we give a little consideration to the book known as 
"Of the Imitation of Christ," we shall find that several of 
the questions propounded above, if applied to it would be 
answered in the affirmative. 

It undoubtedly has achieved an immense amount of 
spiritual good, and is one of the six books of which the 
greatest number of copies have been printed. It is a 
remarkable book, and the number of its readers is larger in 
the present day and generation, than ever before. 

Is it not remarkable that the authorship of some of the 
bestrknown books is a matter of controversy ? In the 
present case the dispute is more apparent than real. I 
have, in a separate paper^ in this volume, said all that is 
necessary as to tlie authorship of this immortal book. 
Much I wrote for this series of articles may be consequently 
omitted. 

It has been properly pointed out that the primary cause 
of the controversy about the authorship lies in the un- 
assuming greatness of the writer. Like Shakespeare, 
A'Kempis did not obtrude himself, but, as John Malone 
says, "the plain tale of contemporary testimony and the 
"undoubted autographs of A'Kempis himself put the 
"claims of all but A'Kempis himself outside the bars of 
"evidence." 

A'Kempis wrote several smaller works, but his fame 
rests almost entirely on "The Imitation." 

The book has been in men's hands now for five hundred 
years; and one collector alone had over a thousand differ- 
ent editions in his librai*y. 
^ Of the Imitation of Christ. 



OF THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. 149 

In defense of his anonymity, the writer himself said he 
"lived to be unknown," and advised men "to search not 
"who spoke this or that, but to attend to what was spoken." 
To the remarkable German monk who gave us this book of 
almost priceless value an enormous debt is owing. Hardly 
a home containing books does not include a copy of "The 
"Imitation." It has been the comfort of rich and poor, the 
educated and the little trained. It may fairly stand as one 
of the foremost books of the world. 

Lastly, it may be remarked that it is strange that, not 
only should the authorship of this book be in dispute ; but 
that also the authorship of "The AVhole Duty of Man"i 
remains undiscovered, yet no two religious books have been 
more universally received and circulated. Millions of 
these books have been circulated in the Christian world. 

^ Published 1659. Variously attributed to Archbishop Sancroft, 
to William Chappel, and to others. 



Six ''Greatest" Books, 



11. 

The Pilgrim's Progress. 



A SECOND of the "greatest" six books, of which the 
largest number of copies have been printed is John 
Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress." It was 
published in 1678, when Bunyan was about fifty years of 
age. He is not a man of one book, but his immortal alle- 
goiy is undoubtedly so far superior to any of his other 
writings, that he is generally known and thought of only as 
the author of "The Pilgrim's Progress." 

Lord Macaulay has written the most unqualified of the 
many paneg^^rics about the book. He could find nothing 
but praise for it, and dismissed the objection that the alle- 
goiy does not hang together in details, and that some of the 
particulars are incongruous, with the remark "It is not 
"easy to make a simile go on all-fours."^ 

Eichard Dowling, in his "Indolent Essays," protests 
against the prescriptive approval of Bunyan, as being one- 
sided, and vigorously attacks the language used by him. 
It is difficult to agree with this comment. Bunyan had 
vigor, a story-telling gift and an apt and clever use of the 

^ Critical and Miscellaneous Essays : "Southey's edition of The Pil- 
"grim's Progress." 



THE PILGKIm's PEOGKESS. 151 

liomely language of his own class in his OAvn day. Bun- 
yan's conceits were dra^vn from his own imagination; 
pondered over at length in the dullness of twelve years' 
imprisonment; and fostered only by a very limited educa- 
tion and recourse during twelve years to two books only. 
But how great the result was, is shown by the popularity of 
tlie work. 

Lord Macaulay said that if there had been no "The Pil- 
"grim's Progress" the author's "Holy War" would have 
been the first of religious allegories.^ This seems altogether 
beyond belief. Canon Venables has said that the narrative 
of "The Holy War" "moves in a more shadowy region,"^ 
than "The PilgTim's Progress." Mr. Froude says "The 
"Holy War would have entitled Bunyan to a place 
"among the masters of English literature. It would never 
"have miade his name a household word in every English 
"speaking family on the giobe."^ The editions of "The 
"Pilgrim's Progress" in England fill many pages of the 
Catalogue of the British Museum. 

Bunyan's education was of the slightest character, and 
his early life discreditable. His language was so atrocious 
that he was rebuked by a woman who heard him, she pro- 
testing that he swore and cursed at so fearful a rate that 
she was made to tremble to hear him, although she herself 
was notorious for what we to-day call "fishwives' Billings- 
"gate." Bunyan owed very much indeed of the changed life 
that came over him to the influence of his wife, whom he 
married when he was only nineteen. He lived in troublous 

^ Critical and Miscellaneous Essays : "John Bunyan." 

"Life of John Bunyan. By Edmund Venables, (Great Writers.) 

'Bunyan. By James Anthony Froude. (English Men of Letters.) 



152 HITHER AND THITHEE. 

religious times, it being a period wlien it Avas unlawful to 
preach in conventicles or at unlicensed meetings. 

The success of "The Pilgrim's Progress" was instanta- 
neous, two editions being published in 1678. It reached its 
tenth edition by the year 1685, has been translated 
into over seventy-six different languages, and has proved 
itself the greatest and most popular allegory ever written. 
Those written in later times by Adams, Monro and others 
are great, but just as Shakespeare has never been equaled 
by any other English poet, so Bunyan has never been 
equaled in skill and abounding interest by any other writer 
of allegory. A very charming edition was published some 
six years ago, with illustrations by the three brothers, 
Louis, Frederick and George Rhead; and the "Temple 
"Classics" edition is well worth owning. It is not certain 
how much was written during his imprisonment and how 
much after his release. Some maintain that the actual 
writing was done by Bunyan during his second imprison- 
ment, which lasted less than a year. The first edition 
came from the press of l^athaniel Ponder, a London pub- 
lisher, and the publication proved such a financial success 
that the printer was afterwards known as "Bunyan 
"Ponder." 

The Bunyan literature is very voluminous. The col- 
lection of the earlier editions of the allegory in the Lenox 
Library at ISlew York is fairly complete. It has all but 
four, namely, the first, seventh, eleventh and seventeenth 
of the first thirty-four editions. The fifth was apparently 
the first to be illustrated, and the copper cuts prepared for 
thu fifth edition were sold either with or without the 



THE pilgrim's PROGRESS. 153 

text. Tliat the popularity of the work was enormous, 
is practically proved by the fact that it was dramatized, 
though, as may be easily understood, it was not a success 
upon the stage. 

The lives of Bunyan are very numerous, and among the 
best writers upon him and his works are included Southey, 
Doctor J. Brown, Offor, Lord Macaulay, J. A. Fronde 
and Copner. 

Whilst Shakespeare can boast of having had his name 
spelled in sixty-four different ways, John Bunyan has 
proved a fairly successful rival, as we find his name 
spelled with thirty-four variations, from Buignon and 
Bunion down to Bunyan. 

The copy of Fox's "Book of Martyrs" which Bunyan 
spelled out in prison has been purchased by subscription 
and placed for preservation in the Bedfordshire General 
Library. It is enriched' with annotations in rhyme, 
written by the prisoner, which are about as poetical as the 
verses which usually precede "The Pilgrim's Pro- 
"gress." One is a comment upon tlie account of Bishop 
Gardiner's death, as described in Fox, and it reads as fol- 
lows: 

"The blood, the blood that he did shed 
"Is falling on his one [own] head ; 
"And dreadful it is for to see 
"The beginning of his misere." 

Bunyan did not lack for humor, for when a Quaker 
visited him in jail and declared that he had searched for 
him through half the prisons in England, the prisoner 
retorted that if the Lord had sent him, he need not have 



154 HITHER AND THITHER. 

taken so much trouble to find him out, for the Lord knew 
that he had been a prisoner in Bedford Jail for twelve 
years. 

Although Bunyan wrote fiftj-nine different works, it is 
doubtful if any are familiarly known, except his "Grace 
'^Abounding to the Chief of Sinners," published in 1666, 
"The Holy War," published in 1682, and "The Pil- 
"grini's Progress." As a book of extraordinary imagi- 
nation, appealing deeply to the human heart; an equal 
delight to old and young; and as a work that has accom- 
plished immense good, it is certainly permissible to include 
"The Pilgrim's Progress" among the six "greatest" book>». 



Six ''Greatest'' Books. 



III. 

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. 



U^^T^HEEE scarce exists," says Sir Walter Scott, "a 
_£_ "work so popular as "Robinson Crusoe."^ Dr. 

Johnson thought that the only books he knew 
of, that he wished longer than the authors had made tliem, 
were "Don Quixote," "The Pilgrim's Progress" and "Eob- 
"inson Crusoe."^ In fact, it was commonly reported 
that when this last work was first published every old 
woman did her best "to go the price of it," and then 
bequeathed it as her best legacy with its companion book, 
Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress."^ 

The book has exercised a greater influence on those who 
read it, than it is possible to estimate. In one of the 
principal British reviews it is designated as being in- 
tensely original, and at the same time, very commonplace. 
This is so because it occupies an almost unique position as 
the most popular piece of fiction ever produced ; and whilst 

^ Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Novelists : Defoe. ( In his Mis- 
cellaneous Prose Works.) 

' Piozzi "Anecdotes." 

*Life and strange surprising adventures of Mr. D De F . 

(1719.) 



156 HITHER AND THITHER. 

some persons will rank ''The Pilgrim's Progress" above it, 
it must not be overlooked that this latter work depends for 
its universal popularity very much on its religious 
character. 

The story of Robinson Crusoe breathes on every page 
sound and practical teaching as to the duties of children 
to their parents, yet it is never didactic; and the writer 
never sermonizes. The great point made by Defoe is — 
Turn your hand to what is next to be done with prompti- 
tude, perseverance and a resolution to make the best of 
circumstances. 

Crusoe's entire course of action during his residence of 
twenty-eight years on the island of Tabago is a determina- 
tion to make the best of circumstances. He was not a 
skilled laborer ; he was only a lad when he ran away from 
home and had no particular education. But as his life 
would have been infinitely less comfortable without chairs, 
tables, earthenware vessels to hold his drink and pipes 
through the medium of which he desired to enjoy the 
pleasures of tobacco, he set to work, made the best tools he 
could ; utilized the trees around him and proceeded to make 
himself comfortable. He protected himself from the risks 
of wild beasts, and built stockades to protect himself from 
the incursions of possible savages from neighboring 
islands. He secured stocks of dried grapes, various fruits, 
grew a little wheat, created a farm and enjoyed the 
pleasures of conversation with his parrot. He took pos- 
session of a cave which protected him during the rainy 
seasons; then constructed a protected residence, which 
he called his "palace ;" built himself "a country residence," 



THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 167 

in a part of the island where the fruits were most abun- 
dant; showed his want of knowledge as a workman by 
building a canoe so large that he could not move it from the 
place on which it was built; manufactured his celebrated 
umbrella; cut himself convenient caps; provided himself 
witli herbs to act as medicines; tried to keep a record of 
the passing days and months ; read in the Bible^, a copy 
of which he had found in the bottom of one of the chests 
saved from the wreck; and generally made the best of 
things. 

The book has, it is asserted, a better claim to be con- 
sidered an English classic than almost any other book in 
the language. 

It has been suggested that the adventures are an 
allegory or dream picture, founded on the author's own 
life ; that the desert island, the hero's ingenious mechanical 
contrivances, the visits and fights with savages, his 
attempts to circumnavigate his island home, his love of 
wandering, as shown in his various experiences after he 
reached Tabago, are meant to shadow forth the "experi- 
"ence of a man who had gone over every vicissitude of 
"life." If this be so, Defoe's difficulties and dangers, 
which are familiar to every reader of literature, suggested 
to him "not a Byronic grimace, but the most cheerful and 
"honest of smiles." 

The "Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," was not written 

until seven years after the story of his prototype, 

Alexander Selkirk, on the Island of Juan Fernandez, had 

been published.-^ The notion that Selkirk wrote out or 

^ Selkirk'3 adventureB were described in Capt. Woodes Rogers's 



158 HITHER AND THITHER. 

dictated his adventures, asking Defoe to put them into 
good English, may be dismissed without much considera- 
tion. The story of Selkirk was common property, and, 
whilst it may have incited the brain of Defoe to write a 
story on similar lines to the life of Selkirk, there is no 
ground for thinl^ing that Defoe and Selkirk had any coni- 
munication with one another in the direction of narrator 
and editor. A "catchpenny pamphlet" entitled "Provi- 
"dence Displayed," etc., and purporting to be written by 
Selkirk "by his omti hand," is to be found in the Harleian 
Miscellany. 

The improbabilities, or rather impossibilities, boldly 
narrated in "Robinson Crusoe" have often been the subject 
of comment. It is unusual, to say the least, for a man to 
leap overboard from a ship or boat naked, and after he 
has swum to land to refresh himself Avith biscuits which 
he had put into his pockets ! It is pointed out also 
that Selkirk, when first rescued, as a result of his four 
years solitude on his island, mumbled and was hardly intel- 
ligible to his rescuers, seeming to pronounce each word 
in halves: v>'hereas Robinson Crusoe, thanks to the talka- 
tive propensities of Pretty Poll, kept up his powers of con- 
versation, so that he could rejoice in the friendship of his 
man Friday; and after twenty-eight years spent on the 
island, seems to have found no particular trouble in talk- 
ing when "rescued by Pyrates." 

"A Cruising Voyage Round the World" and Capt. Edward Cooke's 
"A Voyage to the South Sea and Round the World" ( Vol. II, intro. ) , 
both published in 1712. There was also a catchpenny pamphlet. 
"Providence Displayed," written by his own hand. (Diet, of Nat. 
Biog.) 



THE ADVENTURES OF EOBINSON CRUSOE. 159 

Kousseau^ considered "Kobinson Crusoe" to rank alx)ve 
Aristotle, Buff on and Plinv, and Edgar Allan Poe^ said 
that tlie work has become a "household thing" in nearly 
every family in Christendom. 

Daniel Foe changed his name to Defoe (or De Foe) in 
1703, and published no less than two hundred and fifty- 
four works. The ehangei of name cannot have troubled 
him much, as it is noticeable that he used no less than one 
hundred and eighty-four pseudonyms in the course of his 
long career as a journalist and novelist. His "Robinson 
"Crusoe" was published in April, 1719,^ the second edition 
in May, followed by the third and fourth editions in June 
and August of the same year. By 1761 eight more editions 
had been issued, and those published subsequently are too 
numerous to mention. A very charming illustrated edition 
was published in 1864, with a portrait and one hundred 
drawings by J. T. Watson, engraved by the brothers Dal- 
ziel. The work has been translated into Dutch, French, 
German, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Persian, Portuguese, 
Spanish, Turkish, Welsh and other languages. 

It has been asserted that Defoe could not find a 
publisher willing to accept the book, and that he caiTied 
the manuscript through the round of the publishing houses 
of the day. This seems a very improbable story, as he 
was fifty-eight years of age when he wrote the book and 
an exceedingly well-known writer. The publisher, 

^ Emile. 

^ Review of "Life . . . Robinson Crusoe," in Southern Literary 
Messenger, Januaiy, 1836. 

' Originally in a periodical entitled The Original London Post, or 
Heathcote's Intelligencer (Nos. 125-289, inclusive, 1719). 



160 HITHER AND THITHER. 

Taylor, was a poor man when he undertook to 
bring out this work, but five years later died, leav- 
ing between £40,000 and £50,000. A more probable 
story is that Taylor acquired £1,000 by undertaking its 
publication. Originally the two volumes comprised the 
entire work, which were followed several years later by a 
sequel in the third volume, which "nobody ever read." 

The present monument over Defoe's tomb in Bunhill 
Eields Burial Ground, (the original "mean" stone having 
become broken,) was as the inscription states erected as 
"the result of an appeal in the 'Christian World' news- 
"paper, to the boys and girls of England for funds to 
"place a suitable memorial upon the grave of Daniel 
"Defoe." Subscriptions Avere received from seventeen 
hundred persons, and the monument Avas erected in Sep- 
tember, 1870. 

Sir Leslie Stephen states^ that an absurd story, pre- 
served by T, Warton, is given in Sir Henry Ellis' "Letters 
"of Eminent Literary Men" to the effect that "Robinson 
"Crusoe" was written by Lord Oxford in the Tower. It 
"needs no refutation." 

"Eobinson Crusoe" has been indeed an instantly and 
eternally popular work. "To no Avork," it has been aptly 
remarked, "can we with greater justice apply Fielding's 
"boast than we can to 'Eobinson Crusoe,' that in fiction 
"everything is true but the names and dates, whereas in 
"history only the names and dates are authentic." " 
» Diet, of Nat. Biojj. 



Six ''Greatest" Books. 



IV. 

Don Quixote. 



IK many ways, it may be claimed that tte publication of 
"Don Quixote" effected a revolution in the literature, 
and possibly in the manners, of Europe. Be this 
true, whether to a larger or to a smaller extent, the publi- 
cation of this work indisputably forms an important era 
in the history of mankind. It is a book that stands for a 
vast deal more than a very large number of merely "great" 
books. If it is to be included among the half a dozen books 
which may possibly be classed as "greatest," the reason 
for its admission into the list ought to be patent. 

It is not too much tO' say that by the production of "Don 
"Quixote," the death of the old romance and the birth of 
the new was accomplished. Fiction from that time 
"divested herself of her gigantic size, tremendous aspect 
"and frantic demeanor: and descending to the level of 
"common life, conversed with man as his equal." 

The book had an immediate success; but the value of 
that success must be judged from a separate standpoint. 
We are told that twelve thousand copies of the first part, 
printed at Madrid in 1605, were circulated before the sec- 



162 HITHER AND THITHER. 

ond could be gotten ready for the press. Having regard to 
the fact tliat the sale took place just three hundred years 
ago, such a tremendous operation desen^es attention. 
Whence was its merit ? What was the cause ? We are teld 
that "the very children handled it, boj^s read it, men under- 
"stood, old people applauded the perfonnance, and it was 
"no sooner laid down by one than another took it up, some 
"struggling and some entreating for a sight of it." Of the 
readers of that day it is said "they were astonished to find 
"that nature and good sense could yield a more exquisite 
"entertainment than they had derived from the most 
"sublime phrenzies of chivalry." 

The erudite George Ticknor, in his "History of Spanish 
"Literature" tells us that eight editions of the first part 
were printed in ten years, and five of the second part in two 
years. Further that he considers tliat the edition pub- 
lished in 1Y81 by the Eev. John Bowie, "who gave 
"fourteen years of unwearied labor to prepare it for the 
"press," is the true and safe foundation on which to study 
"Don Quixote," and Bowie's work is criticised as one of 
"much real learning and at the same time of little preten- 
"sion," as is nearly always the case. 

"Don Quixote" has been translated into many lan- 
guages, notably Latin, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Russian, 
Polish, Portuguese, Gennan and English.^ The early 

^ In Albert J. Calvert's tercentenary edition of the "Life of Cer- 
"vantes," he gives a bibliography ending with 1895, excepting for one 
item dated 1904. Up to 1895 there were 208 Spanish editions. A 
separate table, however, gives 650 as the total number of editions, 
including 212 Spanish, 133 English, 158 French, 51 German, 20 Rus- 
sian, 20 Italian and 16 Dutch. The seventeenth century saw 73, the 
eighteenth century 137, and the nineteenth century (down to 1895) 
440 editions. 



DON QUIXOTE. 168 

dramatizations of "Don Quixote" were very unsuccessful, 
although all who were fortunate enough to see the version 
produced by Sir Henry Irving, felt that not only had this 
great actor afforded to theatre-goers a treat in his delinea- 
tion of the eccentric hero; but that he had laid before his 
audiences the result of a keen and satisfactory study of the 
book dramatized. His performance was recently criti- 
cised in the writer's hearing as being not only a piece of 
excellent stage work, but a valuable contribution to the 
appreciation of the pre-eminent work accomplished by 
Cervantes. 

It is interesting to notice, in an article in Temple Bar, 
how Cervantes was noticed, or more properly unnoticed 
and not regarded by many noted victors in the field of lit- 
erature. There it is stated that Ruskin mentions him in a 
foot-note only, and that neither Swift, Southey, Addison, 
Steele, Pope, Sterne, Goldsmith nor Johnson have told us 
anything about him; but that Sir Walter Scott confessed 
that but for Cervantes the "Waverley J^ovels" would never 
have been written.^ 

Coleridge, on the other hand, bears admirable testimony 
to his position as a writer, dubbing him "the inventor of 
"novels for the Spaniards" and claiming that "in his 'Per- 
" ^silis and Sigismunda' tlie English may find the germ of 
"their 'Robinson Crusoe.' "^ Heine says, "Cervantes, 
"Shakespeare and Goethe form the poetic-triumvirate, who 
"in the three forms of poetic representation, epic, dramatic 
"and lyric, brought forth the highest,"^ 

^Temple Bar, Vol. XLVII (1876) : "Heine on Cervantes and the 
"Don Quixote." 

* Fragments and notes, mainly from the "Lectures of 1818." 

* Einlcitung zur Prachtausgabe des "Don Quixote." 



164 HITHER AXD THITHER. 

In the novels preceding the time of Cervantes, old epic 
stories, the feats of knights, the deeds of kings, and the 
prowess of members of chivalry were the sole topics ; while 
the thoughts, lives and doings of the masses had no part or 
parcel in the stories. Nor is it difficult to understand how 
writers who had been fed and trained on such works as the 
"Shah JS^ameh" of Firdausi, the "White King," and 
"Theurdancks" of Treitzsaurwein, dealing with the deeds 
of Maximilian I. ; and who considered the heroes of 
the cycles of Charlemagne and the Holy Grail as the 
beginning and end of all that romance should be, naturally 
developed their romances on methods false to life, inas- 
much as they depicted one side of life only. 

Cervantes effected one of the greatest changes that the 
pen has ever achieved when, by his example, he made a 
general view of the life and the daily doing's of the masses 
possible, and even necessary, in works of fiction, if they 
were to be enduring. In precisely a similar way the great 
painters of peasant life have supplemented with grace and 
usefulness, rather than replaced, the great painters, who in 
their day and generation depicted nothing of common life, 
but confined their immortal talent to the execution of mag- 
nificent Madonnas and Saints. 

Henry D. Sedg^vick says that " 'Don Quixote' is tlie 
"first modem novel, or, in other words, the last of the 
"romances of chivalry and the first novel." He disputes 
the idea that "Don Quixote" is a burlesque on romanti- 
cism and knight-errantry; for even if Cervantes began 
with the purpose of ridiculing old romances, "his genius 
"ran away with the charioteer," as after a very few 



DON QUIXOTE. 165 

chapters he was writing not a satire so much as a revela- 
tion or picture of the real depths of life, and writing it 
witli a brain and fancy both keen and incisive. 

It is quite possible to read into the chapters of "Don 
"Quixote" hidden meanings which probably never had 
any existence in the mind of Cervantes, just as intense 
meanings, occult learning, and superhuman knowledge 
are generally infused by enthusiasts into the lines of 
Shakespeare, of which he was probably wholly guiltless. 
Shakespeare spoke from his unapproached throne of 
greatness as a writer, and he spoke from a full heart ; but 
probably without one-thousandth part of the deep, subtle 
and hardly-to-be-discovered meanings which writers 
to-day put upon his words. 

Don Quixote is a great teacher. His whimsicalities 
afPord amusement; his learning is instructive; and those 
who read Cervantes' book with attention will see how great 
it is, and why it deserves to be included amongst those that 
have effected the greatest changes in literature. Such 
.readers will become as much improved through their com- 
panionship with the eccentric knight, as Sancho Panza was 
improved and changed, from an almost simpleton at the 
beginning of the book to the worthy and excellent fellow 
he became after remaining long a faithful follower of his 
optimistic and delightful guide. Truly Don Quixote was 
the inspirer of much that is good and wise. 



Six ''Greatest" Books, 



V. 

Utopia. 



APIOll^EEE book is entitled to earnest consideration 
when considering which works are entitled to be 
called great books. Sir Thomas More's "Utopia" 
has been aptly described as the "first original story by a 
"known English author." More's work has at least 
received the flattering attention of being imitated by many 
great writers. Among the most notable imitations are 
Lord Bacon's "New Atlantis," Harrington's "Oceana," 
Lord Lytton's "Coming Eace" and Morris' "Erewhon." 
Probably much additional force was lent to Hobbes' 
"Leviathan" and Locke's "Civil Goverimient," from the 
virile force of More's "Utopia." 

More's work is undoubtedly very great, whether it be 
regarded as almost a prophecy of many changes that have 
oome over manners and activities in the human race since 
his book was published, or whether it be looked upon as a 
work of so important a character, that the thoughts enun- 
ciated in it have gradually led to the acceptance of the 
principles for which he contended. 

He wrote at a time of great political tumult and great 



167 



as was liis principal literary product, still greater in 
interest is his remarkable life and career. In his 
"Utopia" he set forth a system of religious disorganiza- 
tion, depicting it all the while as a model organization. 
He set forth a system of multiplication of sects, each in 
private "practicing its own special cult, but all uniting in 
"one national worship." To a large extent he was a 
theorist and not practical ; but was ready to lay down his 
life rather than yield a point to which his conscience for- 
bade him to assent. King Henry VIII. determined he 
would have his concurrence on the divorce question or his 
life. He could not obtain his approval, therefore, under 
one fiction and another, he hounded Sir Thomas More to 
prison, and finally to the scafi^old. 

"Utopia" is a very advanced work, and it is strange to 
find a book written nearly four hundred years ago urging 
complaints against the unnecessary severity of the criminal 
law, and making scathing comments on the wretched con- 
trast exhibited between the luxury and over-indulgence of 
the selfish rich and the wretched condition of the patient 
laboring class. His opinions are just such as we find in 
every magazine and paper of to-day, when he deplores the 
"conspiracy of rich men procuring tlieir own commodi- 
"ties under the name of a Commonwealth," and states that 
perfect wealth will never be found among men until the 
accumulation of money by means of trusts shall be "exiled 
"and banished." It is also strange to read his pleas for 
reforms, many of which have since been tried or effected, 
such as the substitution of penal servitude for capital pun- 
ishment, improved methods in the education of the general 



168 HITHER AND THITHEE. 

masses, a six-hour labor day, and the modification of agrar- 
ian conditions. A book that has induced and brought 
about great changes in the government of countries, that 
has been the direct cause of reforms on a great scale ; and 
that has been the original seed from which has grown a 
perfect orchard of similar works, is fairly entitled to a 
place amongst the great books of the world. 

More is another instance of persons who have made great 
way in life with a comparatively slender education. He 
was to a large extent, a self-trained man. He was bom in 
1478, educated first at a free school, and later in the family 
of Cardinal Morton, but left college without taking a 
degree. He had two lifelong friendships that he valued 
very much, Erasmus, whom he met in 1498, and Dean 
Colet, with whom he was very intimate from 1504 to 1519. 
At one time he thought of becoming a Carthusian, and he 
lived under the rule for four years. He tired of the 
thought and of the practices of the rule and chose a wife. 
The peculiar humor of the man is clearly indicated in his 
method of selecting a bride. He made the acquaintance 
of a gentleman who had three accomplished and agreeable 
daughters. His inclination led him to the second, but he 
thought "it would be both great grief and some blame also," 
to the eldest if she was left unmarried, and so he chose 
the latter. It is curious that he had the courage to marry 
at all, as he himself had compared the danger of choosing a 
wife to that of putting a hand into a bag full of snakes 
with only one eel, where, he said, "one may indeed chance 
"to light on the eel, but it is a hundred to one he will be 
"stung by a snake." Whether he found a bite from a 



169 



snake or not, he seemed willing to make a second venture in 
the marital market, for we are told that, his first wife 
dying, he obtained a dispensation to marry again within a 
month of the lady's death and "without any banns- 
"asking."^ 

Henry Craik, in his "English Prose," devotes consider- 
able space to Sir Thomas More's "Utopia;" and quotes 
with special approval a long passage on "Pasturage 
"Destroying Husbandry," and criticises the work gener- 
ally with the remark "that the book itself is full of the 
"quiet fun in which More has no superior." 

Undoubtedly few men would have had the wit to 
remark to the Lieutenant of the Tower, who apologized 
for not being able to entertain him as he would wish: 
"Mr. Lieutenant I verily believe, as you may, soe are you 
"my good frend in deed, and would (as you say), with 
"your best cheere entertaine me, for the which I most 
"hartily thank you. And assure your selfe (Mr. Lieuten- 
"ant) I doe not mislyke my cheere, but whensoever I soe 
"doe, then thrust me out of your doores." .JSTor would 
many have shown so curiously all absence of fear of death. 
When mounting the scaffold, observing it to be a weak 
structure, he remarked to the Lieutenant: "I pray you, 
"I pray you Mr. Lievetenaunt see mee safe upp, and 
"for my cominge downe lett mee shift for my selfe." 

More seem-s to have been "an intelligent, peace-loving 

"Conservative, sprung from the people, who desired the 

^ This story quoted by the Diet, of Nat. Biog. appeared in the 
"English Historical Review" Vol. VII— 712-15— 1892) , but Lumley 
in his edition of Roper's "Life of More" and More's "Utopia," gives 
the date of the death of More's first wife as 1511-1512, and the date 
of the second marriage as 1515. 



170 HITHER AND THITHEK. 

"welfare of all classes, but never contemplated achieving 
"reform in any department of State or Clinrch by revolu- 
"tion." 

Much of the weight of his arguments in "Utopia" may 
be attributed to the fact that he was very earnest in looking 
forward to a reformation in church matters from within, 
and had no sympathy with the att-empt of Martin Luther 
to effect a reform from without. Sir Thomas More was 
successively Treasurer of the Exchequer, Speaker of the 
House of Commons, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 
and Lord Chancellor, being the first layman to hold that 
eminent office. It may fairly be taken that he was an 
honest, earnest, sincere man ; one who had boldness enough 
to plead against social wrongs and also sufficient acumen to 
express himself and plead for changes in a manner and 
tone which enabled all persons to read him with pleasure 
and to weigh with benefit his powerful arguments. 

His "Utopia" was first printed in Latin, at Ix)uvain, in 
1516. The most important translations into English are 
first that by Eobinson, issued in 1551, 1556, 1597, 1624 
and 1639. This was republished by Dibdin in 1808, and 
again by E. Arber in 1869. The second was by Bishop 
Burnet, who brought out his translation in 1684. This was 
reproduced in nine subsequent editions. The tliird most 
important translation was published by Arthur Cayley in 
1808. 

Dr. Johnson esteemed More's reputation as standing 

above that of Erasmus or Micyllus;^ and More, as father 

of English prose,^ is considered to have done for Eng- 

^ Journey into North Wales, July 15, 1774. 

^ Moi-e's controversial works were written by him in English, and 
probably also the History of Richard III., Life of Edward V., etc. 



lYl 



lisli style wliat Cbaiicer, as father of English verse, accom- 
plished for the English vocabulary. 

Sir Thomas More's happy creation of the word 
"Utopia," literally "ISTo place" or "ISTo where," introduced 
a new word into the English vocabulary, with a wide range 
of meaning, from ideal to chimerical perfection. More 
depicted "a state of equal social opportunity and not 
"social equality," and the dominant note of his whole 
book is "social reconstruction." In the "Anatomy of 
"Melancholy," Burton declares "Utopian parity is a 
"kind of government to be wished for rather than 
"effected;" and Kuskin declares^ that Utopianism "is an- 
"other of the devil's pet words," and proceeds to argue that 
the "admission which we are all of us so ready to make, 
"that because things have long been wrong, it is impossible 
"they should ever be right, is one of the most fatal sources 
"of misery and crime." 

From the time of Plato downwards speculative theories 
of what would be an ideal condition of life and government 
has been a favorite subject with writers on social topics, 
and it is impossible to doubt that Sir Thomas More and the 
long stretch of writers who describe their varied Utopian 
schemes of government have done much good. It never 
can fail to be of use that people should set up a better model 
for consideration, and Utopists of the last four centuries 
have been public benefactors. All praise, therefore, to 
More, who to a large extent has been, if not the creator, at 
least the foremost exponent of this class of literature. 

By Roman Catholics Sir Thomas More, for his firmness 

^ Architecture and Painting, II. 



172 HITHER AND THITHER. 

in the matter of the question of Henry VIII. 's divorce, hag 
been very highly distinguished. Sidney Loe^ records that 
Gregory XIII., on succeeding to the papal throne, bestowed 
on More the honor of public veneration in the English Col- 
lege at Rome. On December 1, 1886, he was beatified by 
Pope Leo XIII. 

To the 1518 edition of "Utopia," Holbein contributed a 
map and a picture of More and his friends "listening to 
"Raphael's narration," and permitted engraved borders 
already in other books to reappear there. Holbein, who 
had stayed with More at Chelsea for three years, returned 
his hospitality by painting portraits of him and his 
family. 

"Diet, of Nat. Biog. 



Six ''Greatest" Books. 



VI. 

Franklin's "Autobiography." 



THE impossibility of formulating any rule by which 
it could be decided whether any particular work 
should be coimted one of the greatest books, or 
should not be so ac<iounted was very humorously shown in 
the contest which arose over Sir John Lubbock's list of 
"The Hundred Best Books." Sir John Lubbock an- 
nounced "that he did not treat the hundred he had chosen 
"as being the hundred best books, but as those which, on 
"the whole, he considered the best worth reading." Mr. 
Ruskin "put his pen lightly through the needless and blot- 
"tesquely rubbish and poison of Sir John's list." 

Apart from the intrinsic interest of the book itself, it is 
probably "the earliest American book that acquired and 
"sustained a great popularity," Undoubtedly it stands 
out as one of the foremost books of general and perpetual 
interest. The story of the book from its bibliographical 
side has been frequently told. It was written in install- 
ments : the first part, giving Franklin's life until his mar- 
riage, in 1Y30, was written in England, at the house of a 
friend, and in remembrance of the man and the greatness 



174 HITHER AND THITHER. 

of his work the room in which it was written was always 
afterwards known as ^'Dr. Franklin's room." The second 
part was written in 1784 at Passy, near Paris. The third 
part was written in 1788 in Philadelphia, and the fourth, 
consisting of a few pages only, was concerned more witli 
politics than mere autobiogTaphy. The third and fourth 
parts were written when Franklin was over eighty years of 
age. Having regard to the great value of this book, it is 
remarkable with how much unwillingness Franklin ap- 
plied himself to writ© it. This may largely be accounted 
for when it is remembered how deeply the gi*eat philoso- 
pher was engaged in affairs of State. 

Immediately after his death the first portion was pub- 
lished in French in Paris. It was then re-translated into 
English, in which form it appeared in London, and was 
accepted both in Great Britain and America as the autlior's 
original work. Finally the "Autobiogi-aphy" was pub- 
lished by Franklin's grandson, William Temple Franklin, 
from a copy of the original manuscript.-^ 

^ There were two manuscript copies of the "Autobiographj'." One 
had been sent by Franklin to M. le Veillard. and one in Franklin's 
own hand-writing came into possession of William Temple Franklin, 
upon Benjamin's death. On the publication of the French edition of 
the first part in 1791, M. le Veillard stated: "I do not know by 
"what means tlie translator has procured them, but I declare and 
"think it ought to be known that he did not have them from me; 
"that I had no part in this translation," etc. (Letter to the "Journal 
"de Paris," 1791). William Temple Franklin did not publish his 
grandfather's "Autobiography" until 1817 (American edition 1818), 
and then curiously, he exchanged with IMme. le Veillard (M. le Veil- 
lard having died previously) the autogi-aph copy Franklin had left 
him for the copy that Franklin had sent to M. le Veillard. The 
reason for this exchange was that M. le Veillard's copy was better 
written and easier for the printer to read. Hence the edition of 
1817 (copied by Sparks) was printed from the copy presented to M. 
le Veillard by Franklin, and not from the autograph copy left to 
the grandson. Upon the death of the widow le Veillard, the auto- 



FRANKLIN S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



1Y5 



It was undoubtedly desirable that this remarkable book 
should be printed from the original manuscript, as it 
enabled many curious blunders in the early English edition 
to be corrected. One such blunder may be mentioned — the 
translator of the edition published by Mr. J. Parsons calls 
one of the ballads that Franklin wrote in his boyhood "The 
"Tragedy of Pharo." "E'one would recognize under this 
"title the little song which was known as 'The Lighthouse 
" 'Tragedy.' The explanation of this droll mistake is 
"found in the fact that the word lighthouse used in the 
"French copy was 'Phare,' and the Frenchman translated 
"the title of the poem as "La Tragedie du Phare !' " There 
are at least five editions in French, "all being distinct and 
"different translations." 

One of the earliest critical notices of the "Autobiogra- 
"phy" will be found in the Monthly Review of 1794. 
The general interest of readers in it can be very practi- 
cally proved by examining the records of public libraries 
and seeing how frequently the "Autobiography" is called 
for. In one library in ISTew York the book was taken out 
during one year more than four hundred tiroes. Professor 

graph copy passed into the hands of her daughter, and upon her death 
in 1834, it became the property of M. P. de Senarmont. John Bigelow, 
in his "The Life of Benjamin Franklin," (1874) tells how he learnt 
of the existence of the autograph copy, and how he secured this price- 
less treasure, on January 26, 1867. He says 

"I availed myself of my earliest leisure to subject the memoirs 
"to a careful collation with the edition which appeared in London 
"in 1817, and which was the first and only edition that ever pur- 
"ported to have been printed from the manuscript. The results of 
"this collation revealed the curious facts that more than twelve hun- 
"dred separate and distinct changes had been made in the text, and, 
"what is more remarkable, that the last eight pages of the manu- 
"script, which are second in value to no other eight pages of the 
"work, were omitted entirely." In Mr. Bigelow's "Life," the text of 
the autograph copy was given. 



176 HITHER AND THITHER. 

McMaster, in his "Life of Franklin," included in the 
"American Men of Letters Series/' says "if it be put with 
"books of its kind and judged as an autobiography, it is 
"beyond doubt the very best ; if it be treated as a piece of 
"writing and judged as literature, it must be pronounced 
"the equal of 'Robinson Crusoe,' one of the everlasting 
"books in the English language." A book must stand very 
high in general estimation when it can also be favorably 
compared with Pepys's "Diary." The "Autobiography" of 
Franklin, besides claiming the attention of readers on 
account of its intrinsic interest, commands remembrance 
from its having marked a brilliant departure in American 
literature. 

It would be a slight to Franklin's memory to omit to 
mention that to him is due the credit of having founded 
the Library Company of Pliiladelpliia, which was com- 
menced in 1731, and is familiarly kno^vn as "the mother 
"of subscription libraries." 

Franklin was a great man, his "Autobiography" is a 
famous book and it is gratifying to know that a new and 
excellently-prepared edition of his "Life and Works" is 
in preparation^ and is to be gi^^en to the world at the time 
of the celebration of his bi-centenary, on January 17, 
1906. 
^ Edited by Professor Albert H. Smyth. 



Facsimiles of the Manuscripts 
of Tacitus, 



Fac-Similes of the Manuscripts 
of Tacitus/ 



APT quotations are frequently made, and yet it is not 
always easy to give the authority. Public and 
other speakers will often tell you "When they have 
"made the world a solitude, they call it peace ;" or, again, 
"Everything unknown is magnified," "Forbidden things 
"have a secret charm," "We accomplish more by prudence 
"than by violence." These and many more are familiar 
quotations from, the celebrated Latin author, Tacitus, who 
lived during the last half of the first century. He was a 
friend of the younger Pliny, and was the renowned author 
of a narrative of events in the reigns of Galba, Otho, 
Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus and Domitian. There have 
been many editions of his works; some in the original 
Latin, with notes, and others in the form of simple transla- 
tions. The text of his "Annals" has been mainly founded 
on two celebrated manuscripts known as the Medicean 
Codices. Photographic fac-similes of these two manu- 

^ Codex Laurentianus Mediceus 68 I — Codex Laurentianus 68 II. 
(Codices Graeci et Latini .... Tome VII, 1902: pars prior et pars 
posterior. ) 



180 HITHER AND THITHER. 

scripts have recently been issued. The original manuscripts 
themselves are preserved in the Laurentian Library, at 
Florence, and form a part of the enormous collection of 
ten thousand manuscripts by Greek and Latin classical 
authors there gathered together. These two manuscripts 
of Tacitus are among the most treasured of this collection. 

There is no certainty as to the proenomen of Tacitus. 
In the first manuscript he is called Publius Cornelius 
Tacitus., but in the second he is described only as Cornelius 
Tacitus. In other places he has been designated Gains. 

Manuscript ]^o. 1 is on sheets of parchment measuring 
9% X 7% inches. This writing forms the sole authority 
for Books I-IV, a fragment of Book V, and Book VI, of 
the "Annals," as they are generally called, although there 
seems to be no real authority for that title. In the first 
manuscript the books are called "^ab excessu Augusti," a 
title similar to that of the words of Livy, "ab urbe condita." 

The first manuscript is necessarily considered to be the 
best, as it is also the oldest manuscript, of any part of the 
works of this historian. Philip Beroaldo, the younger, an 
Italian scholar and writer of great reputation, was libra- 
rian of the Vatican in 1516, and edited the books com- 
prised in this manuscript in editions published in Rome in 
1515, Lyons in 1542 and Paris in 1608, They were all 
in folio. Beroaldo dedicated the work to Pope Leo X, 
who gave 500 sequins for the parchment from which it was 
copied to Angelo Arcomboldo, who brought it from the 
Abbey of Corvey in Westphalia. A full account of the 
first edition of the first five books of the "Annals" pub- 
lished at Rome in 1515 is to be found in Dibdin's Cata- 
logue of Earl Spencer's Library. On the reverse of the 



TACITUS FAC-SIMILES. 181 

last leaf of that edition is given a print of the Papal arms 
and the Pontiff's offer of a remuneration to those who 
should discover ancient works not previously edited. Man- 
uscript jSTo. 1, is of the ninth century, and was discovered 
about the year 1520 ; but, as will be noticed, it lacks Books 
VII-IX, and for what remains of these "Annals" the Medi- 
cean Codex, IsTo, 2, written in the eleventh or twelfth cen- 
tury, is the only authority. 

This second manuscript is written on sheets of parch- 
ment measuring 1314 x 10^ inches. It is in Lombard 
characters, and comprises Books XI-XVI of the "Annals." 
Some of the original pages, notably folios 49, 100 and 101, 
have faded, and at some time some librarian has interlined 
the words that have faded away as accurately as he could 
read them. 

These manuscripts are reproduced and form the seventh 
in a series of twelve codices now in course of publication 
at Ley den by A, W. Sijthoff, under the title "Codices 
"Graeci et Latini." The fac-simile has been done with 
extreme care, and in the margins will be found a series of 
annotations, the majority of which are attributed to Bero- 
aldo. The Codices previously published comprise the Col- 
bertine Old Testament in Greek, portions of St. Augustine, 
Bede, Horace, Ovid, Servius, a magnificent copy of 
Plato in two volumes, Plautus and Homer's Hiad.^ The 
volumes are attractively bound in wooden covers, with 
three-quarter leather backs, the whole presenting a very 
mediaeval appearance. 

^ Subsequently fac-similes of Terence and Aristophanes have been 
issued. For remarks on the Terence fac-similes, see "Fac-similes of 
"portions of the works of Terence, the Poet and Dramatist." 



Fac-Similes of 

Portions of the Works of 

Terence^ the Poet and Dramatist. 



Fac-Similes of Portions of the 

Works of Terence, the 

Poet and Dramatist. 



THE eighth of a series of twelve of the oldest and 
most precious Greek and Latin manuscripts now 
in course of publication by A. W. Sijthoff, of 
Leyden, was issued in May, 1904.^ The volume consists 
mainly of a photographic fac-simile of a celebrated manu- 
script of Terence, preserved in the Ambrosian Library of 
Milan. Much interest attaches to this manuscript, from 
the fact that it is elaborately illustrated, and gives a large 
number of drawings of the principal characters in leading 
scenes from Terence's plays. There are included ninety- 
one pictures from other codices of Terence and some of the 
very early typographic editions of this author. The work 
contains an elaborate preface by Eric Bethe. 

The principal manuscripts of Terence are nine in num- 
ber, and one of the two preserved in the Vatican Library, 

^Codices Graeci et Latini. Tomus VIII. Terentius Codex 
Ambrosianus H. 75 inf. . . . Prefatua est Ericus Bethe. . . . 
Lugduni Batavorum, A. W. SijthoflF, 1903. 



186 HITHER AND THITHER. 

kno^^Ti as the Vaticau Codex No. 2,^ is of the ninth century 
and of special interest, as it contains drawings of the 
masks worn by the actors. One preserved in the Library 
of Paris,^ of which twenty-three pages in fac-simile are 
given in the volume under description, is full of large 
illustrations of the scenes in the different plays, from 
which much amusement and instruction can be obtained. 
In the Vatican Codex N'o. 2, we have a portrait of the 
Roman author himself. Other portraits are given in one or 
two of the remaining manuscripts, but the one mentioned 
seems the best of them, though whether it is a good portrait 
or not must remain undecided, as we know how, in books 
like the ISTuremberg Chronicle, one portrait is made to do 
for many persons. 

Bethe's introduction deals principally with the textual 
variations between the various codices. Little seems to 
be known of the origin of the Ambrosian manuscript, which 
consists of one hundred and twenty leaves of parchment, 
written on both sides. The leaves are a little over nine 
inches in height by eight inches in width. Folio 84 
is included in Chatelain's collection of the Palaeography 
of Latin Classics, being there described as a M-riting of 
the ninth century. The first notice of the manuscript 
appears to be by the celebrated critic. Cardinal Angelo 
Mai, an associate in the Ambrosian Library, who pub- 
lished some commentaries and unpublished drawings of 
Terence in 1815.^ Bethe and most other authorities treat 

* Codex Vaticanus 3868, fol. 2r. 

^ Codex Parisinus 7899. 

*M. Acci. Plauti fragmenta inedita . , . Mediolani, 1815. 



TERENCE FAC-SIMILES. 18 Y 

the Codex as belonging to the tenth or eleventh century. 
Mai seems to be the only writer who particularly noticed 
the manuscript until Umpfenbach, who published an edi- 
tion of the comedies of Terence in 18Y0, and gave a full 
account of the variations between the various manuscripts, 
including the Ambrosian Codex, in his preface and notes. 

We have preserved to us only six of the comedies of 
Terence, and it is, perhaps, interesting to know that in 
anticipation of the methods of many modern critics, who 
have ascertained that no celebrated author really wrote the 
books attributed to him, Terence was accused of not 
having written the plays known as his. But in the same 
way as we deal with the questions whether Bunyan wrote 
"The Pilgrim's Progress" or made a translation of his 
immortal allegory from a Latin manuscript; whether 
Shakespeare wrote his plays or not ; whether Milton copied 
Vondel, and so on, the majority are content to believe that 
Terence was the author of the six plays attributed to him. 
They have been used, from time to time, by successive 
writers, and adapted to later purposes by various English 
dramatists, notably Steele, Garrick and Cumberland; as 
well as by Moliere, Baron and others. This is not the 
place to comment on the plays, of which, however, Scaliger 
said: "There are not three imperfections in the whole 
"six plays," while Madame Dacier observed that "it would 
"be difficult to determine which of his six plays deserved 
"preference, since they had each of them their peculiar 
"excellences." 

In one of the early typographical editions of Terence, a 
picture, is given of the "Theatrum." It is interest- 



188 HITHER AND THITHER. 

ing, not only as showing what was thought to be a 
picture of the pulpitum, or raised stage ; but as probably 
not a bad illustration of the principal features of a 
theatre at the time when the particular edition^ of 
Terence from which this illustration is taken (1493) was 
printed. 

In the play of "Heauton-timoroumenos" (''The 
"Self-Tormenter") is given an illustration in which 
four of the chief characters are shoAvn. To this 
play Chapman owed a portion of the plot of his "All 
'Tooles." In the "Phormio" is to be found another very 
characteristic illustration. In it are shoAvn two side scenes, 
or wings, while in nearly every other case only one, either 
on the left or right, is given. It was from this play that 
Moliere took the idea of one of his most extravagant farces, 
''The Cheats of Scapin." 

The illustrations of Terence have attracted a great deal 
of attention, and twenty-six of them, comprising the com- 
plete set for the "Phormio," were taken in 1893 from the 
Vatican Codex No. 2, for the use of the classical depart- 
ment of Harvard University. The Parisian Codex is 
placed on exhibition in a special case at the Bibliotheque 
Rationale. 

* Terentius A. Johanne Treclisel. Editus Lugduni, 1493. 



The Text of the Bible. 



The Text of the Bible. 



FOR several centuries not only learned scholars, but 
thousands of others have expended lives of labor 
in studying the text of the Bible. Yet it is only 
recently that nineteenth century invention, by enabling us 
to produce exact fac-similes of invaluable manuscripts, 
has placed it within the power of library owners to have 
on their shelves reproductions of the most ancient copies 
of the Book of Books, on which they can bestow a casual 
interested examination or a minute study, as their leisure 
or inclination shall dictate. Thanks to the liberality of 
the trustees of the British Museum, the custodians of 
the Vatican Library and the Emperor of Russia, anyone, 
at a cost of from $450 to $500, can now gather in one 
room, not only printed editions of the three oldest known 
manuscripts of the Bible in the world, which, however 
correctly examined by argus-eyed proof-readers, are liable 
to contain misprints ; but, better still, splendid reproduc- 
tions of the three most important "texts" of the Scriptures, 
two of them printed from special types, and the third (the 
Codex Alexandrinus) produced by photo-lithography. An 
examination of them shows that there is much of ordinary 



192 HITHER AND THITHER. 

and general interest which deserves notice for that large 
class who like to read about exceptional publications. 

It is a very remarkable fact that out of the two hundred 
or more manuscripts of portions, more or less complete, of 
the Bible contained in the great libraries of the world, the 
three principal, kno^vn as the Alexandrine, Vatican and 
Sinaitic codices, are in the possession, one each, of the 
three great divisions of the Christian Church.^ The 
Alexandrine is in the custody of the English Church, the 
Vatican, as its name indicates, in that of the Roman 
Catholic Church, and the Sinaitic in that of the Greek 
Church. In somewhat similar manner as the three great 
cities of these centers of Christendom, have magnificent 
domed buildings asi their principal churches — namely, St- 
Paul's Cathedral in London, St, Peter's in Eome, and St. 
Isaac's in St. Petersburg — so each of the three branches of 
the Church, has as one of its principal glories, one of these 
priceless manuscripts. The Alexandrine, transcribed a 
little more than four hundred years after Christ, was pres- 
ented to King Charles in England in 1628. The date when 
the Vatican Library obtained its chief treasure is not 
known; but it is included in the first catalogue of that 
library, made in 1475, and is in a fourth century hand- 
writing. The Sinaitic codex was discovered in our own 
days by the great scholar, Constantine Tischendorf, in 
1859, and "jDresented" by him, in jSTovember of that year, 

^The fourth great uncial codex is the Codex Ephraemi (generally 
referred to as Codex C) of the fifth century. This codex is, however, 
very imperfect and barely legible, the ancient writing having been 
almost removed by a mediaeval scribe to make way for the writings 
of Ephraem Syrus. 



THE TEXT OF THE BIBLE. 193 

to the Emperor Alexander II. It is probably a little older 
than the Vatican copy. It is peculiar that the Alexandrine 
codex is written throughout in double columns, and 
the Vatican and Sinaitic mainly in three and four columns, 
respectively. In each manuscript the poetical portions are 
written stichometrically ; that is, in two columns upon a 
page. 

The writing in each of the manuscripts is uncial, that 
is, in one style of letters, closely resembling capitals, with- 
out any stops or even any division between the words. The 
term comes from the Latin word uncia, an inch, the letters 
sometimes being an inch long. An idea of the appearance 
of the writings may be obtained by transcribing a short 
passage of the Bible in uncial fashion, remembering, of 
course, that the codices in question are in Greek, and that 
each line was filled up regardless whether a word was 
broken in the middle of a syllable or not. Using Eng- 
lish for Greek characters, the appearance of the leaves is 
therefore somewhat after this fashion: 

THUSSAITHTHELOEDTH 

EYALSOTHATUPHOLDE 

GYPTSHALLFALLANDT 

HEPEIDEOFHERPOWER 

SHALLCOMEDOWI^FROM 

The fac-simile of the Alexandrine codex was printed 
by order of the trustees of the British Museum in 1879- 
1883, in four folio volumes, by autotype process. The 
original has been bound in a similar number of volumes, 
and the arms of King Charles I. are emblazoned on the 

18 



194 HITHER AND THITHER. 

covers. Volumes I to III contain the Old Testament, in 
the Septuagint version, and the fourth the ISTew Testament. 
Apart, too, from some defects from loss of some leaves of 
the original, single letters have in several places been cut 
off in the process of binding. This is always designated as 
"Codex A," it having been the first that was thoroughly 
studied by scholars, though it has been since outranked in 
antiquity by the Vatican and Sinaitic copies. On the first 
folio of the text is a note in Arabic, reading, "Made an 
"inalienable gift to the Patriarchal cell in the city of 
"Alexandria. Whosoever shall remove it thence shall be 
"accursed and cut off. Written by Athanasius the 
"humble." He is supposed to have been Athanasius III., 
the Melchite Patriarch, who was still living in the year 
1308. 

On a flyleaf at the beginning of the first volume is a 
note in Latin, in a hand of the seventeenth century, "Given 
"to the Patriarchal cell in the year of Martyrs 81-i," to 
which is added in pencil, plus "A. D. 284 equals 1098." 
But for this date Sir E. Maunde Thompson, the librarian 
at the British Museum, says, there is "no authority what- 
"ever in any part of the manuscript." 

On the back of Folio 4 is another inscHption, in Arabic, 
to which has been added a Latin translation in the hand- 
writing of Dr. Richard Bentley, who held the office of 
librarian from 1693 to 1724, that "some persons record 
"that this book was written by the hands of the martyr 
"Thecla." The tradition of the Church of Alexandria 
that Saint Thecla was the scribe is preserved in a state- 
ment written by the Patriarch Cyril Lucar, of Constanti- 



THE TEXT OF THE BIBLE. 195 

nople, wto, in a Latin memorandum of thirteen lines, 
occupying tlie whole of the right side of Folio 2, records 
that this book written in Greek, containing the New and 
Old Testaments, was, "as we have received from tradition," 
written bj the hand of Thecla, a noble Egyptian lady, 
(some thirteen hundred years before we acquired it), "a 
"little after the Council of ]^ice." He adds that her name 
appeared in a subscription appended to the manuscript, 
which had been destroyed long before his time. Cyril 
removed the manuscript from Alexandria about the time 
of his promotion from the See of Alexandria to that of 
Constantinople, in 1621 ; and later presented it to James I. 
of England, through Sir Thomas Roe, the English 
Ambassador at Constantinople, but failed to place it in the 
hands of Sir Thomas until after the death of that king. 
In a letter to Lord Arundel, dated January 30, 1625, the 
story of its origin was embellished^ for the Ambassador 
there states that the Patriarch had described the manu- 
script to him as "written by Thecla, the protomartyr in the 
"time of Saint Paul." This he modified in a subsequent 
letter, dated 1627, addressed to Archbishop Abbot, where 
he notes that the "Patriarch doth testify under his hand 
"that it was written by the Virgin Thecla, daughter of a 
"famous Greek called Abgierienos, who founded the 
"monastery in Egypt upon Pharoas (sic) tower, a devout, 
"learned maid, who was persecuted in Asia and to whom 
"Gregory I^azianzen hath written many epistles. . . . She 
"died not long after the Council of I^ice." The tradition 
can hardly have had any foundation in fact. In 1628 
it was presented to Charles L, seventeen years too late, 



196 HITHER AND THITHER. 

unfortunatelj, to be of use in the preparation of the 
"Authorized Version ;" and when the British Museum was 
founded, in 1Y53, it was transferred from the royal private 
collection to the national depository. 

The lost leaves of the ISTew Testament comprise all prior 
to verse 6 of chapter xxv of Saint Matthew's Gospel ; the 
passage from Saint John vi : 50, to Saint John viii : 52, 
and II Corinthians iv: 13, to xii: 6. At the close, how- 
ever, by way of compensation, is found the "only extant 
"copy of the earliest of the Apostolic Fathers, the Epistle 
"of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, together with 
"a part of a second epistle whose authorship is more 
"doubtful." 1 

The manuscript consists of seven hundred and seventy- 
three leaves, with one or more modern leaves to each 
volume, the size of the leaves being 12% x 10 inches. The 
manuscript was numbered in Arabic numerals of the four- 
teenth century on the verso sides, and has been repaged 
throughout by Patrick Young, the librarian to Charles I., 
with a separate numeration for each Testament; the New 
Testament commencing with the number 26 to allow for 
the loss of the first twenty-five leaves. The Clementine 
Epistles were numbered by a more recent hand. After 
the list of canonical books, including the Clementine 
Epistles, there is a gap, and then is added, separately, 
"The Psalms of Solomon." These are now lost, but the 
Clementine Epistles were most admirably edited in 1869- 

^The lacunae in the Old Testament are I Kings xii, 19, to xiv. 9: 
Psalms xlix, 19, to Ixxix, 10: and some other portions due to the 
mutilation of the leaves. 



THE TEXT OF THE BIBLE. 197 

187Y by the late very learned Dr. Liglitfoot, Bishop of 
Durham. 

Two reproductions of the Vatican Codex have been 
issned, one in photographic fac-simile, the other from 
special types. The manuscript is probably a hundred 
years older than the Alexandrine. Whether it is as ancient 
as the Tischendorf manuscript is a matter of question. 
That expert considered the two as of "about the same 
"date," whilst Tregelles, the English critic, believed the 
Vatican copy to have been in existence as early as the 
Council of Nice, which was held in the year 325. Prob- 
ably the Sinaitic copy is some fifty years older. 

The Codex Vaticanus, generally referred to as Codex B, 
contains the Old Testament in Septuagint version, less, 
however, all Genesis to chapter xlvi: 48, and Psalms 
cv to cxxxvii, inclusive. In the JSTew Testament the 
Epistles to Philemon and Titus, the two to Timothy, the 
Epistle to the Hebrews after chapter ix, verse 14, and 
the whole of the Revelations are wanting. The manu- 
script consists of seven hundred and fifty-nine leaves of 
the finest but very thin vellum, measuring about 101/2^ 
10 inches. The whole is bound in one volume in red 
moroecO'. Each page contains three columns of forty-two 
lines apiece, but with several marked peculiarities. Words 
are written smaller and are more crowded at the ends of 
lines and many words are contracted, the omission of the 
letters m or n (for example) at the end of a word being indi- 
cated by a line across the top of the last letter written by the 
copyist. Some of the leaves have lost their corners, with 
consequent losses of a greater or less number of words, but 



198 HITHER AND THITHER. 

the writing must "in its original condition liave been very 
"perfect as a specimen of penmanship, but nearly the 
"whole of the text has been traced over by a later hand, 
"probably in the tenth or eleventh century, and only such 
"words or letters as were rejected as readings have been 
"left untouched." The Old Testament, including the 
books styled Apocrypha in the English version, are con- 
tained in volumes I-IV, and the New Testament opens 
volume V. 

The condition of the page ending the Gospel according to 
Saint Mark, has been much commented on. In the English 
version of the Bible the last chapter of his Gospel has 
twenty verses. Only the first eight of these are contained 
in the Vatican and Sinaitic manuscripts. From the fact 
that rather more than a column is left blank in the Vatican 
codex, it has been argued that the copyist knew of the verses 
omitted, but had doubts as to whether they Y\'ere to be in- 
cluded or not. To this may be objected that the copyist 
closed up Saint Mark's Gospel with the "filigree" ornament 
with which the close of other books is indicated, and also 
appended a kind of finis, hata marJcon, according to 
Mark, indicating that either the third column was acci- 
dentally left blank or that he had consulted his superiors 
after he had begun to transcribe Saint Luke, and was 
directed to close Saint Mark at verse 8 of chapter xvi. 

In the reproduction the missing portions of the manu- 
script are supplied in modem Greek characters for the 
convenience of readers, but in the codex itself they are 
supplied in a hand apparently of the fifteenth century, 
and the title on page 1 of the first volume is written in 
purple letters. 



THE TEXT 03? THE BIBLE. 199 

On pages 238 and 624 of the codex is written, in a large, 
flourishing hand, in Greek letters, Clemes monachos, 
apparently the signature of one, Clement, the Monk, the 
probable "restorer" of the manuscript, to whom may be 
due the disfigurement caused in the beautiful uncial writ- 
ing by the manuscript being "written over," through 
some ungrounded fear that the writing would fade away. 
That this was a baseless alarm is sho^vn by the perfect 
condition of the words here and there left untouched. 
Various other like offenders seem to have amended or 
altered the original manuscript by collation with other 
manuscripts. The notes, additions and alterations have 
been classified and four hands identified, and in volume 
VI of the f ac-simile, these are distinguished as the handi- 
work of unknown amanuenses, except so far as the name 
of Clemes has been retained, designated as B 1, B 2, etc. 

In the center of the last page of the codex are stamped 
in red the letters "R. F.," which stand for "E-epublique 
"Frangaise," inclosed in a circular stamp, bordered with 
the words "Bibliotheque I^ationale." They were im- 
pressed on the manuscript after Napoleon, in 1808, had 
"transferred" this codex, with large numbers of other 
treasures of art and literature, from Rome to the Paris 
Imperial Collection. This invaluable manuscript was 
restored to the Vatican by the Allies after the peace of 
1815, and over the French marks has since been added 
that of the tiara and keys, in a circular stamp bearing the 
words "Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana." 

When this codex first came under scholarly criticism, 
the presence throughout of accents over the Greek charac- 



200 HITHER AND THITHER. 

ters, threw much discredit on its age. Examination under 
powerful glasses, however, showed that they were all added 
at a much later date, the ink being of a different color and 
kind. 

An edition of the Vatican codex was undertaken in 1828 
bj Cardinal Mai, at the instance of Pope Leo XII., but did 
not appear until 1857, and 'Svas extremely inaccurate," 
having "many hundreds" of errors. The fac-simile edi- 
tion, which gives the text intact, was issued under the 
auspices of Carolus Vercellone and Josephus Cozza, 
1869-1881, and has been of inestimable value to the 
students of Holy Writ. 

The story how Constantine Tischendorf, of Leipzig, 
hunted from 1843 for the Sinaitic codex, and only 
recovered that priceless manuscript in 1859, is full of 
interest, mixed up as it is with the literary forgeries of 
that worthy colleague of the tribe Psalmanazar, Samuel 
Ireland and Shapira, Dr. Constantine Simonides, of 
Athens. 

As early as 1843 Tiscliendorf, under the patronage of 
his own sovereigTi, Frederick Augustus, King of Saxony, 
visited the convent of Saint Catherine, in the peninsula 
of Sinai. The convent, apparently, was once an active 
center of learning and study, and a rich library of manu- 
scripts had, probably from the offerings of worshipers, been 
accumulated in the course of centuries. As time went on, 
however, care for these treasures, and even knowledge of 
their value, seems to have dwindled, much as did the num- 
ber of the monks, which was reduced, according to "various 
"travelers, to twenty -three, twenty and twenty-six." When 



the: text Olf THi: BIBIvE. 201 

access to the convent had been obtained by Tischendorf, 

he set about to examine the library, tlis "eye fell npon a 

"large basket full of old parchments standing upon the 

"floor, apparently counted of no value, and only waiting 

"for use as kindlings," to which purpose two basketfuls of 

similar fragments had already been applied. From this 

fire-feeder he rescued forty-three leaves. But his eagerness 

had been too clearly shown, for having told the monks that 

their probable date was as early as the fourth century, 

they would not part with any more, the remainder having 

suddenly grown valuable in their eyes. The leaves 

secured were parts of the Old Testament in Greek, and 

comprised portions of I Chronicles and II Esdras, all of 

ISTehemiah and Esther, and parts of Tobit, Jeremiah and 

the Lamentations. They bore every mark of great 

antiquity, were penned in oblong folio, written with four 

columns on each page.-^ With these forty-three leaves he 

had, perforce, to be content for the time, and they were 

deposited, on his return, in the University Library at 

Leipzig. The publication of an edition of these leaves in 

1846, under the title of the Codex Frederico-Augustanus, 

in honor of his patron, created immense interest, and many 

scholars and governments ransacked all likely and unlikely 

spots, in the hope of recovering the remainder of the manu- 

scrip. Fortunately, Tischendorf had resolutely kept secret 

where he had found the forty-three leaves. In 1853 he 

again visited the convent, but fruitlessly, for "not a trace 

"of the coveted parchments could be found." In 1855 he 

* These 43 leaves were originally part of what is now known as the 
Codex Aleph., or the Sinaitic Codex. 



202 HITHER AND THITHER. 

published two further pages, of which he had secured 
copies, but not the originals, in 1843. Undaunted, how- 
ever, by the refusal of the monks to part with any more 
parchments at any price, though the petition was enforced 
by an influential coadjutor, the physician to the Viceroy 
of Egypt, the indefatigable manuscript seeker, a third time 
visited the convent in 1859, supported by an Imperial 
commission from the Emperor of Russia, the head of the 
Eastern Church, to make an Eastern journej' in the inter- 
ests of Biblical science, and supplied with the necessary 
funds from the Imperial treasury. Again he reached the 
convent, and when the library was cheerfully thrown open 
to him he was favored with a display of manuscripts of 
liturgies and treatises of great value; but nowhere could 
he espy the one volume for w^hich he was searching, and, as 
time slipped by, he lost heart. In despair he had arranged 
to leave on a certain day, and on the previous afternoon 
took a walk with the oihodomos, or house steward of the 
convent, and in him found a sympathetic student. Their 
talk was continued after their return t-o the convent, and at 
supper time, as they were preparing to part for the night, 
the steward said, "I, too, have been reading the Septua- 
"gint." As he spoke he brought a bulky volume, wrapped 
in a red cloth, from the corner of his ovm cell and laid it 
in Tischendorf's hands. 

The rest of the story is soon told. The first glance 
revealed that the manuscript was found. Tischendorf held 
in his hand "the most precious Biblical treasure in exist- 
"ence." His next request was for permission to take the 
manuscript to Cairo, that it might be copied in full. This 



THE THIXT Oif THE BIBLE. 203 

the steward could not permit, and Tiscliendorf hurried 
away to Cairo to find tlie prior of the convent, who had left 
for that city a day or two previously, and in less than a 
week the necessary consent was obtained. A day or two 
later the manuscript was brought to Cairo, and, with the 
assistance of two Germans, a doctor of medicine and a 
druggist, the one hundred and ten thousand lines were 
transcribed, revised and corrected. 

Then came an overmastering desire to possess the 
original, and Tischendorf suggested that it should be pre- 
sented to the Emperor of Russia, as the head of the Greek 
Church; and as the traveler, at this juncture, was able to 
lend great assistance to the convent in the matter of an 
ecclesiastical election, in which he carried for them their 
candidate, he urged his request, which was emphasized 
by the support of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey. 
"The next day," says Tischendorf, ''I received from them, 
"under the form of a loan, the Sinaitic Bible to carry it to 
"St. Petersburg, and there to have it copied as accurately 
"as possible." This he did, but went several steps further, 
as in ITovember of that year (1859) he "presented" the 
priceless volume, with many other literary acquisitions 
that he had picked up in his travels, to the Emperor 
Alexander II. Suffice it tO' say that, however the mis- 
understanding arose, whether on the part of Tischendorf, 
or on the side of the monks as to the terms of their loan, 
the Emperor has deposited the copy in the Imperial 
Library, and the monks, refusing to be compensated, are 
grieved at what they regard, with good reason, as a breach 
of faith. 



204 HITHER AND THITHER. 

TliG reproduction was accomplished in 1862-1867, in five 
atlas-quarto volumes, at the expense of the Czar, in an 
edition limited to three hundred copies, two hundred of 
which were sent, by order of the Emperor, to the gi'eat 
institutions and libraries throughout the world ; one hun- 
dred being left in the hands of the editor, with liberty 
to sell them. 

The codex consists of three hundred and forty-five and 
one-half leaves of fine and beautiful vellum, each leaf 
measuring about 13^ inches in length by rather more 
than 1414 inches in height. The arrangement of the 
writing is almost unique, being distributed in four 
columns, each column containing forty-eight lines of from 
twelve to fourteen uncial, or capital letters, without spaces 
between the words, or accents, the marks of punctuation 
being exceedingly few. Of the three hundred and forty- 
five and one-half leaves, one hundred and ninety-nine are 
taken up by the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, 
exclusive of the poetical jX)rtions, and of so much of that 
portion of the Bible as was included in the forty-three 
leaves of the Codex Frederico-Augustanus before men- 
tioned. The poetical portions are written in parallel 
clauses, regulated by the sense, with only two columns on 
a page. 

The principal value of this codex lies however, in its 
containing the only extant copy in Greek of the Xew Testa- 
ment in its entirety. The Gospels are given in their usual 
order, then follow the Pauline Epistles, the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, preceding the four Pastoral Letters, then the 
Acts of the Apostles, the general epistles, and lastly the 
Revelations. 



THE TEXT OF THE BIBLE. 205 

It has been noticed that the "coincidence of this mann- 
"script with readings known to have been approved by 
"Eusebius, renders it very probable that the Codex 
"Sinaiticus was one of fifty volumes written on skins in 
"ternions and quaternions which he prepared in the year 
"331 A. D., by Constantino's direction, for the use of the 
"new Capitol." The value of this manuscript to critical 
experts cannot be exaggerated, but remembering tliat every 
time a rare manuscript is handled it is liable to injury, it 
is easy to understand how few custodians of such a docu- 
ment are willing to submit it for long and minute examina- 
tion. It was, therefore, a task of the last value that, by 
means of photo-lithography and other processes, copies 
should be multiplied which would be to a reader of pre- 
cisely the same value for study as the inestimable originals 
themselves. 



Mexican Antiquities. 



Mexican Antiquities, 



A BOOK that cost from $250,000 to $300,000 to pub- 
lish has few rivals, even if we include the 
"Description de TEgypte," published under the 
auspices of JSTapoleon I., and when it is added that the 
history of its preparation reads like a romance and that 
it cost its wealthy author his life, it seems worth while to 
note the remarkable story. The work is well known, and 
is generally called "Lord Kingsborough's Mexican Antiqui- 
"ties."^ It consists of nine large folio volumes. In the first 
four are nearly eleven hundred plates, reproducing in fac- 
simile all the odd coloring of twenty old Aztec manuscripts, 
which comprise some of the most important relics of that 
ancient "literature." Only three of these manuscripts 
have been interpreted and of one of them a portion of the 
interpretation is lost. When Lord Kingsborough was an 
Oxford student his attention was drawn to this interesting 
study by meeting with one of the manuscripts, the 

^Antiquities of Mexico, comprising fac-similes of ancient Mexican 
paintings and hieroglyphics preserved in ... . together with The 
Monuments of New Spain, by M. Dupaix . . . the whole illus- 
trated by many valuable inedited manuscripts by Lord Kingsborough 
. . . in IX volumes. London: 1831-1848. 



210 HITHER AND THITHER. 

"Mendoza Collection/' in the Bodleian Library, and he 
became so fascinated with the subject that he practically 
devoted the remainder of his life to an attempted unravel- 
ing of the mysterious hieroglyphics. Who shall be the 
Champollion to unlock these hieroglyphics remains to be 
seen. Some, indeed, fear that the power to read the 
manuscripts will never be acquired, but it is not altogetlier 
hopeless that some key will be found, kindred to the 
Rosetta stone, for, says the historian Gama, ''If we are to 
"believe Bustamente, however, a complete key to the whole 
"system is at this moment somewliere in Spain. It was 
"carried home at the time of the process against Father 
"Mier, in 1795, The name of the Champollion who dis- 
"covered it is Borunda."^ 

As soon as Lord Kingsborough's appetite for this study 
was duly whetted, he collected all the particulars of the 
manuscripts in the Bodleian, Vatican and Escurial 
Libraries, and employed an artist, one ]\Ionsieur Aglio, for 
five years in making fac-similes. These were collected 
and printed, with transcripts of such explanations as 
existed, supplemented by extracts from various historians 
and transcripts of inedited works, the whole being 
finally issued in 1831-1848. A dispute having arisen 
between Lord Kingsborough and his paper makers 
as to their account, he, like Mr. Pickwick in the matter of 
the Bardell costs, declined to pay, and was cast into a 
debtor's prison. lie fared worse than Mr. Pickwick, for, 
unhappily, he had no Sam Weller to help him Avhilst he 
was in prison. He contracted a prison fever, from which 

^ Descripcion, torn, ii, p. 33, nota. 



MEXICAIT ANTIQUITIES. 211 

he died. Had he lived but a few months longer, through 
the death of his father, the Earl of Kingston, which 
occurred about that time, he would have succeeded to the 
title and a fortune of £40,000 a year. 

The work concludes with the "Eelaciones" of Don Alva 
Ixtlilxochitl. It is amusing that a correspondent of the 
London Notes and Queries some years ago wrote to ask how 
one was to learn to pronounce the long and almost unread- 
able Mexican names, and referred particularly to Ixtlil- 
xochitl. JSTo one answered the query, but to-day an 
inquirer can obtain a solution by consulting some such 
popular and easily-accessible book as Thomas' "Bio- 
"graphical Dictionary." There it is said the name is 
to be pronounced Ikst-lel-HO-cheetl. It has been well 
remarked that some of the Aztec emperors, especially 
the last two, lived lives equalling in interest the careers 
of Alfred the Great, the Young Chevalier and others, 
and yet their names are even unknown to most Europeans. 
This is perhaps attributable to the impossible names they 
bore. Mexicanese was, indeed, a wonderful language. 
Amongst other trifles, in it a "priest" was elaborately 
designated as "notlazomahuizteopixcatatzin," or "vener- 
"able-minister-of-God-that-I-love-as-my-f ather ;" and the 
word "amatlacuilolitquitcatlaxlahuitli" signified "the-re- 
"ward-given-to-a- messenger- who- bears-a-hieroglyphic-map- 
' 'convey ing-intelligence . ' ' 

The "Mendoza Collection" is a transcript made after the 
conquest of Mexico, and is divided into three sections. It 
relates (plates 1-18) to the civil history of the nation; 
(plates 19-57) to the tributes paid by conquered cities; 



212 HITHER AND THITHEK. 

and (plates 58-73) to the domestic economy and discipline 
of the Mexicans. A copy, possibly the original, was seen 
by the Marquis Spineto in the Escurial, and in the seventh 
lecture of his "Elements of Hieroglyphics" he describes 
and engraves a plate (]S[o. 62, in Kingsborough), exhibiting 
the marriage ceremonies of the Mexican aborigines, where 
the bride is being carried to the groom pick-a-back by a 
female intermediary. The series from which this plate is 
taken shows the way in which, year by year, the offspring 
of the marriage was educated and brought up to the doing 
of "chores" and the following of other useful pursuits, 
such as making mats and fishing-nets, rowing, etc. 
Last of all, footsteps are depicted on the ground between 
the houses of neighboring lads and lasses, indicating with 
what pertinacity the youthful Johns or Williams walked 
backward and forward from their lionies to call on the 
maidens of their choice, resulting, let us hope, in satis- 
factory and happy marriage ceremonies. 

It is worthy of comment that the copy of the original 
map, when sent to Charles V., was captured on its pas- 
sage by a French cruiser and the manuscript went to 
Paris, where Purchas bought it, and in 1625 engraved 
it in the third volume --"f his "Pilgrims." 

This "Mendoza Collection" was, of course, much used 
by Prescott, as it is the most authentic document relating 
to the ancient Mexicans, and a large number of the plates 
are dated. The epoch of the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico 
began with our year 1091. How ancient the inhabitants 
were has still to be ascertained. A certain Bishop l^unez 
quotes a tradition among the Indians that Votan was a 



MEXICAIsr ANTIQUITIES. 213 

Chiapaneze who was present at tlie erection of the Tower 
of Babel, that tower being, in fact, built by Votan's own 
uncle. On the dispersion following the confusion of 
tongues, Votan received a language from the Almighty, 
with the added command to populate the lands of Anahuac, 
or the Valley of Mexico, This he did, and the Bishop 
N"unez affirms that "he knew" a family at Teopixca, of the 
surname of Votan, the populator. Further "proof" of 
descent from Votan was deemed unnecessary. The nation's 
antiquity seems better sho^vn in the facts that they had no 
knowledge of wax or oil for purposes of light ; did not use 
milk, unless they took it from buffaloes ; had not begun to 
use iron ; and had no domestic animals, so that when Cortez 
appeared with a horse the king spoke of the "kind of deer" 
on which the Spaniard rode. 

Almost the sole object of Lord Kingsborough was to 
demonstrate that the Aztecs were descended from the 
Israelites, probably even from the time of ISToah ; and his 
notes, filling a volume and a half, are elaborate com- 
mentaries to prove that hypothesis. Unfortunately, these 
notes made as each hieroglyphic afforded an opportunity 
for comment, are appended without order or arrangement, 
hence masses of learning and strained interpretations, the 
result of years of labor, are practically inaccessible. In 
their present form the notes are as bewildering and as 
unconnected as the thousand and one tales of Scheherezade 
in the "Arabian JSTights," and not so entertaining. The 
hieroglyphics undoubtedly show remarkable parallelisms, 
or remnants of traditions, wonderfully akin to the teach- 
ings of the Mosaic and Christian Scriptures, but so do 



214 HITHER AND THITHER. 

the traditions of nearly every heatlicn religion. It is 
only a question of degree, and abstractly they afford no 
actual proof of having come from direct Mosaic teaching. 

In the baptism of Aztec infants the babes were sprinkled 
with vrater amid prayers by the midwife for the 
washing away of their original sin, and the words of the 
prayers used have been preserved. Their marriage laws 
resembled those of the Hebrews, refusing polygamy except 
to kings and nobles, punishing adultery by stoning to 
death and requiring chastity under severe penalties. 
Both confession to a priest and absolution were practiced. 
It was ordered that every few years the land should lie 
fallow. Hebrew Scripture events were remembered with 
variations. The fall of Eve was ascribed to the eating of 
a banana, not an apple. The deluge is recorded in plate 
7 of the Codex Vaticanus, and ISToah, who is there called 
Cox-Cox, and his wife are shown escaping the flood in a 
box, they being the only two persons who were saved. So, 
also, the story of the fall of man is given, and his subse- 
quent redemption through a Son born of a Virgin is shown 
in plates 7 and 20. It was an Indian tradition that Saint 
Thomas, the Apostle, personally taught in Anahuac, and 
the promise of his return, like that of Elijah to the Jews, 
is delineated in certain plates, as explained by Lord Kings- 
borough in tlie sixth volume. 

Having regard to the similarity between Hebrew lore 
and Aztec traditions, the remarkable "repetition," almost 
complete, of the life of David in the life of the Mexican 
King ISTezahualcoyotl (which means the hungry fox), 
should be mentioned. In youth ]!^ezahualcoyotl was pur- 
sued over mountains and into caves like a partridge by a 



MEXICAN ANTIQUITIES. 215 

second Saul, who feared him as a successor to the throne, 
but the young prince v/as beloved by his peasant subjects 
and always escaped, as David did by the aid of Jonathan 
and other sympathizers. Finally he came to the throne, 
and fell madly in love with the promised bride of one of 
his old generals. The general was forthwith dispatched 
by the King to a war and put, like Uriah, in front of the 
battle, where he was killed, aftcT which the bride, like 
Bathsheba, became the wife of IsTazahualcoyotl. This 
King was the chief singer of his nation, wrote many poems, 
some of which have been preserved and took charge of 
the music of the temple. He built a great temple ''to 
''the Unknown God," and had an only son by his wife. 
She was a long time barren and he at last, almost in 
despair, went into a retreat, v/here he fasted forty days, 
praying for a child ; and at the end of the fast was favored 
with a vision promising that the event should be as he 
desired. The child was bom and when eight years old 
the King, as he felt death approach, appointed him his 
successor and threw the royal mantle upon him. The child 
was named ]^[ezahualpilli, that is, "the prince for whom 
"one has fasted," and he proved himself a second Brutus. 
His eldest son and heir entered into an amorous poetical 
correspondence with "the Lady Tula," one of his father's 
concubines, and JSTezahualpilli had him publicly executed, 
his house built up so that it could never be entered, and 
the poor Lady Tula strangled and burned to ashes.^ 

The discovery of crosses on Aztec altars has been much 
discussed by such men as J. L. Stephens in his "Travels 

^ For fuller history of these two kings see Prescott's "Conquest of 
Mexico," Book I, chap. vi. 



216 HITHER AND THITHER. 

"in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan ;" ^ and "Inci- 
"dents of travel in Yucatan," ^ also by Baring-Gould in 
his "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages." ^ A plate of 
an enormous cross on an altar, Avith two figures, one on 
each side, one of whom is holding an infant bending 
toward the cross, has been copied by Lord Kingsborough. 
The anonymous author of "Communications with the 
"Unseen World" records that a tradition existed among 
the Indians that when the sign of the cross should be vic- 
torious, the old religion would disappear, as was fulfilled 
when the Spanish conquest led to the establishment of the 
Roman Catholic religion throughout the country. The 
Mexican aborigines' knowledge of astronomy was very 
extraordinary, and their reckoning of time was almost 
perfect, a difference of only a few hours in five centuries 
having been detected in their calendar. Lord Kings- 
borough, and Dupaix, in his "Monumens," which were 
originally prepared by order of the King of Spain, 
both state that the Mexicans knew the use of the telescope.'* 
It is indisputable, from plate 22 of the Codex Telleriano- 
Remensis, that they calculated eclipses ; and Laplace com- 
ments on their great knowledge of this study in the fifth 
book of his great work. 

The critical value of this monumental work has been 
seriously disputed. More recent fac-similes of the work 
have raised the question whether Mons. Aglio did the best 

^N. Y. 2 volumes, 1841. 
==N. Y. 1843. 

^ Curious Myths of the Middle Agos : The Legend of the Cross. 
* Prescott in a note dissents from this opinion ( Conquest of Mexico, 
Book I, chap. iv). 



MEXICAN AISTTIQUITIES. 217 

that could have been done in his part of the work, and it is 
quite certain that Lord Kingsborough, in his five volumes 
of text, might have done a gi'eat deal better than he did. 

During the past few years the Due de Loubat has been 
issuing a series of fac-similes of Mexican manuscripts, 
including one or two of those comprised in the great work 
of Lord Kingsborough. These are accompanied by 
elaborate and carefully-written commentaries, or notes, 
and all persons interested in this subject owe a very large 
debt of gratitude to the Duke for what he has done and is 
doing. He has kindly presented copies of some of these 
to The Free Library of Philadelphia, and it is hoped that 
gradually a complete set of what he has issued will be 
included among the possessions of the Library. 



The Nuttall Codex, 



The Nuttall Codex. 



STUDENTS are much indebted to the Curator and 
other authorities of the Museum of Archaeology in 
Harvard University, for the issue in fac-simile of 
the "ISTuttall Codex"^ from the original Mexican picture 
history, now the property of Lord Zouche, of England. 
It at one time belonged to the Library of San Marco. The 
name has been given to this codex as an acknowledg-ment 
of Mrs. Zelia ISTuttall's attainments in the difficult study 
of Mexican archaeology. 

The fac-simile is of the exact dimensions of the original, 
which is painted on prepared deer skin, strips of which 
are glued together at intervals and form a long folded 
band. The codex is painted on both sides with signs in 
reverse positions. Counting both sides, it practically 
makes a series of eighty-four pages of brilliantly-colored 
pictographs, measuring about 10 by 7^/^ inches each. 
Among the principal chiefs whose deeds are portrayed 

^ Codex Nuttall : fac-simile of an Ancient Mexican Codex belonging 
to Lord Zouche . . . with an introduction by Zelia Niittall. 
Peabody Museum of American Archteology and Ethnology, Harvard 
University; Cambridge, Mass., 1902. 



222 HITHER AND THITHEE. 

are two kno^vll as Eight-Deer and Twelve-Ollin. It has 
been remarked that while the history and deeds of these 
chieftains are given in considerable detail, yet the codex 
does not contain what might be termed a consecutive written 
text, but "merely consists of a pictorial representation of 
"events, accompanied by such hieroglyphic names as were 
"necessary in order to preserve them exactly and fix them 
"in the memories of the native bards, who would con- 
"stantly derive an inspiration from the painted pages." 

Mrs. ISTuttall has accompanied the codex with an intro- 
duction of thirty-five pages, giving in detail her first im- 
pressions of this remarkable discovery. Whilst, of course, 
it is a fact that we know but little of the history and 
literature of ancient Mexico, and of the names of its 
national heroes ; this volume supplies us "with a wealth of 
"fresh knowledge, especially concerning the dress, cere- 
"monial observances and the position of women." 

It has not been possible to positively identify Eight- 
Deer and the other heroes whose exploits are commemo- 
rated in this codex, nor to precisely localize the events 
which are pictured therein. But as the dates of many of 
the years are given and can be read, as increased knowledge 
of the period from 1470 to 1520 is acquired, it is possible 
that the identification of the heroes will be made certain. 
From many of the pages — e. g., page 47 — it is apparent, 
from traces of effaced hieroglyphs, that the artist first 
sketched the scene he desired to depict and then finished 
it in the brilliant colors. In some cases he seems to have 
designed to put a j)articular scene in one picture and then 
altered his mind, probably discovering that he had made 



THE NUTTALL CODEX. 223 

an error. At all events he frequently depicted some otter 
scene. 

In the "Antiquities of Mexico,"^ published by Lord 
Kingsborough, plates 58 to 62 of the "Mendoza Collec- 
"tion," preserved in the Selden collection of manuscripts in 
the Bodleian Library at Oxford, interesting pictorial de- 
scriptions are given of the rites, ceremonies and educational 
methods connected with the birth and bringing up of native 
children from the cradle to their marriage. Similar cere- 
monies are shown in the l^uttall codex, and on page 19 is 
exhibited much of the ceremonial of the lord Twelve-Wind 
and the lady Three-Flint. The actual physical ceremonial 
of kneeling under an arch whilst streams of water were 
poured upon them from above by priestesses, holding 
painted bowls, was probably not strikingly pleasing to the 
persons so honored. 

On page 52 the great hero Eight-Deer is shown divested 
of military insignia, undergoing the rite of having his 
nose pierced by a priest, in order to enable him to assume 
the "nose-turquoise," the mark of chieftainship, which he 
is shown wearing in all subsequent pictures. 

Mrs. JSTuttall has promised to state in much more detail, 
in a later publication, the result of her study of this and 
other codices. 

It was found that photography could not be utilized in 
this reproduction, and the entire codex had to be traced 
by the hand of an artist. Mrs. ISTuttall says that his "ac- 
"curate and admirable drawing is unsurpassed." 

The manuscript was "lost to view" for a long number 
^ See article in this volume entitled "Mexican Antiquities." 



224 HITHER AND THITHEE. 

of years, and during a third of a century it remained 
undisturbed in the library of the Honorable Robert 
Curzon, and not even a trace of its existence reached the 
outer world. In June, 1898, it was entrusted to the 
custody of Sir Edward Maunde Thompson, of the British 
Museum, so that Mrs. Nuttall might proceed with the 
work she has so excellently accomplished, of procuring its 
reproduction for the benefit and edification of students at 
large. 



The 
Breviary of Cardinal Grimani. 



The Breviary of Cardinal 
Grimani. 



SIlSrCE the early part of the fifteenth century the 
Breviary of Cardinal Dominique Grimani has been 
regarded as one of the greatest library treasures of 
the world. The celebrated Giacomo Morelli, who was 
appointed librarian of St. Mark's Library, at Venice, in 
177s, said that, of its kind it was the most beautiful work 
in existence, and had the most authentic and most marvel- 
ous collection of miniatures of the Flemish school. 

Under the editorship of Dr. S. G. De Vries, the libra- 
rian of the University Library at Leyden, a fac-simile 
reproduction of this work is being issued,^ and the first of 
the twelve parts in which it is to be published was received 
in Philadelphia early in January, 1904.^ The edition is 
limited to six hundred copies, and a vast deal of newspaper 
and magazine writing has been published concerning the 

^ II Breviario Grimani : della Biblioteca di S. Marco in Venezia 
Riproduzione fotografica completa piibblicata da Scato de Vries, Pre- 
fetto della Biblioteca Universitaria di Leida. Prefazione del Dr. Sal 
Morpurgo. Leida; A. W. Sijthoff, 1904, etc. 
^ The second, third and fourth parts have since been received. 



228 HITHER AND THITHER. 

authorship of the miniatures and marginal decorations. 
The original work seems to have been undertaken about 
1478, and Cardinal Grimani secured possession of it in 
1489, so that, if these dates are correct, it was ten years at 
least in execution. It appears to have been sold to the 
Cardinal by one of the artists for five hundred ducats, but 
now is much more nearly worth, according to the popular 
phrase, its "weight in gold." 

The original work was largely encouraged by Pope 
Sixtus IV., but he did not live to see the work completed, 
and it remained for some time in the hands of the artists. 
For a long time it was preserved in the library of the 
Basilica of St. Mark's, and, for greater safety, was pre- 
served in the Treasury of that "Church of Gold." By a 
decree dated 1797, the librarian, Morelli, procured the 
removal of the Breviary from the Treasury of St. Mark's 
to the celebrated library of San Marco, in Venice. The 
work was bound by Alexander Victoria, at the ex^^ense of 
the Venetian Republic, in crimson velvet, the upper and 
lower covers being emblazoned with profile portraits in 
silver-gilt of the celebrated Doge Antonio Grimani and 
his son, the Cardinal. 

The volume contains eight hundred and thirty-one pages, 
measuring between 11 and 12 inches in height by 8 inches 
in width. Those who have carefully examined the original 
work describe the parchment as unexcellable. TheBreviaiy 
follows the form of that book of offices as published at 
Rome in 1477. It has no title page or frontispiece, but 
commences with the illuminated calendar, one page being 
devoted to each month, and each month being preceded by 



BEEVIAEY OF CAEDINAI. GEIMAISTI. 229 

a full-page miniature depicting a scene or ceremony appro- 
priate to the season. These and some one hundred or 
so more of the miniatures are stated to be the workman- 
ship of Memling, but those who are not willing to accept 
this statement can refer to John W. Bradley's "Dictionary 
"of Miniaturists," in which it is asserted that there is no 
reliable proof of Memling's ever having worked in minia- 
tures. The arguments for and against the attribution of 
these glorious illuminations to Memling are, however, 
given in detail in the "Dictionary." 

More light may probably be thrown on this subject when 
we receive the introduction to this fac-simile, which is 
promised from the hands of the present Director of the 
Library of San Marco, Dr. Sal Morpurgo. 

In addition to the twenty-four whole-page miniatures of 
the calendar, "all by the hand of Memling," there are 
sixty more, said to be by him, depicting scenes from the 
Bible and the leading incidents of the principal saints, 
with eighteen smaller ones connected with or descriptive 
of particular services contained in the Breviary and placed 
at the head of each office. In the Breviary the miniature 
frequently occupies the whole page, with a single subject 
picture, or tlie miniature is superimposed upon a picture 
border, which, strengthened by rigid architectural lines 
and tabernacle work, forms a rich frame. 

Each page has on its margin a perpendicular band, 
variously ornamented. In these are given arabesques, 
beautiful gildings, decorations in silver, pictures of flowers 
and fruits of all sorts, with a multitude of quadrupeds, 
birds and fish, and, "in a word, all the products of nature." 



230 HITHER AND THITHER. 

Besides these are given country scenes, garden views, 
cameos, statnes, in addition to capital letters which deserve 
especial notice. 

There have been various illustrated books published 
about this work, notably a series of photographs by Mas- 
Latrie, and a series of chromo-lithographs by Curmer ; but 
this is the first time that a complete reproduction mainly 
in the original colors, has been attempted. Official per- 
mission in regard to this "authorized publication" was 
granted to A. W. Sijthoif, of Leyden, under whose auspices 
the "Codices Gra?ci et Latini"^ are being published. The 
entire work Avill consist of twelve hundred and sixty-eight 
collotype plates and three hundred colored plates, and will 
take a very important place among the magnificent fac- 
simile reproductions which have distinguished the last few 
years. 

^ A series to Avhich reference has previously been made. The fac- 
similes of Terence and Tacitus in this series are described elsewhere 
in this volume. 



St. Margaret's Book of the Gospels. 



St Margaret's Book of the 
Gospels. 



IT is a trite remark that if yon cannot see the original, 
the next best thing is to see a photographic fac-simile. 
The fac-simile of "The Book of the Gospels,"^ owned 
by St. Margaret, Qneen of Scotland, who died in 1093, has 
been pnblished, and a copy placed in the Free Library of 
Philadelphia. The original is preserved in the Bodleian 
Library, at Oxford ; and the story of the book is as remark- 
able as the beanty of the manuscript itself. The original 
manuscript consists of thirty-eight leaves of vellum, and 
measures 7 x 4% inches. It has four full-page illumina- 
tions, facing respectively, the four selections from each of 
the four Gospels. "The four Evangelists are drawn," says 
Professor Westwood, "with much spirit, and are engaged 
"in writing or holding their individual Gospels and are 
"seated on stools and cushions, each having a plain, circu- 
"lar, golden nimbus." 

The fac-simile is edited by Father W. Forbes-Leith, who 

^ The Gospel Book of St. Margaret, edited by W. Forbes-Leith ; 
Edinburgh, David Douglas, 1896. 



234 HITHER AND THITHER. 

gives an interesting preface, relating the history of the 
manuscript, JSTearlj eight hnndred j^ears ago it was care- 
fully described by the Confessor of the Qneen. He relates 
that it came to pass that, on one occasion, as the person who 
carried it to her was crossing a ford he let the book, which 
had been carelessly folded in a piece of cloth, fall into the 
middle of the river. Unconscious of what had occurred, 
the bearer quietly continued his journey; but when he 
wished to produce the book, suddenly it dawned upon him 
that he had lost it. Long was it sought, but nowhere coul^ 
it be found. At last, however, it was discovered lying open 
at the bottom of the river, from which it was miraculously 
recovered without injury. 

After the death of St. Margaret the book entirely dis- 
appeared from notice; and it was only eight or nine years 
ago that a little octavo volume of manuscript, in a shabby 
brown binding, was removed from a small parish library at 
Brent Ely, in Suffolk, England, and offered for sale in a 
London auction room. The Bodleian Library purchased 
this manuscript for the insignificant sum of £6. On 
examination of the book, for the purposes of cataloguing it, 
it was noticed that there was a poem inscribed on a fly 
leaf in front of the manuscript ; and in that poem refer- 
ence was made to an attendant who, while carrying it "to 
"the King and Queen," had crossed a ford and let it fall 
into a stream, where it lay a long time — until, in fact, a 
passing knight discovered it. 

Mr. Falconer Madan, who catalogued this Bodleian 
treasure, questioned, "I wonder who were the King and 
"Queen ?" His assistant, Miss Lucy Hill, daughter of the 



SAINT Margaret's book of the gospels. 235 

editor of Boswell's "Life of Johnson," remarked^ ''Why, 
"there was a similar incident recorded in the life of St. 
"Margaret of Scotland !" The mystery was solved. The 
identification of the book seems indisputable, and there 
is little doubt that the book, after all these centuries, 
has been recovered. Were it now to get into the market, 
it would take many multiples of £6, to secure this magnifi- 
cent specimen of early illuminated writing. 



Visiting Cards. 



Visiting Cards. 



IT is almost impossible to conceive how the fashionable 
world ever did without those social conveniences, 
IcaoAvn as visiting cards. Yet they are not of very 
ancient date. Apparently they were adopted in English 
society, before they were generally used on the European 
continent. Mrs. St. George, whilst she was staying at 
Hanover, records in her journal on JSTovember 16, 1Y99, 
"at six Madame de Basche called to take me to pay my 
"visits ; we only dropped tickets ;" and four months later 
records that at Vienna she had again been paying formal 
visits, but that "the multiplicity of visits was not confined 
"to leaving a card, as in London; but real, substantial 
"bodily visits." 

When the custom first began, it was the habit to write 
the visitor's name on the back, of the whole or a part, of an 
old used playing card. ISTot only were the names of callers 
written on them, but messages and inquiries were conveyed 
in the same way. They were also so used for announcing 
marriages, ceremonies and programmes. Invitations and 
inquiries had previously been conveyed by servants, and 



240 HITHER AND THITHEE. 

this use of cards was introduced to guard against their 
mistakes. 

In 1851, on removing a marble chimney piece in the 
front drawing room of a house in Dean street, Soho, Lon- 
don, which had been the residence of Hogarth or his father- 
in-law, four or five visiting cards were found, on one of 
which was written the name of Isaac iN'ewton. 

In the fourth plate of Hogarth's "Marriage a la Mode" 
is found an additional proof of playing cards having done 
duty as visiting cards and cards of invitation, during the 
middle of the eighteenth century. There are several lying 
about on the floor in the right-hand corner of the picture. 
On one is inscribed "Count Basset begs to no how Lade 
"Squandor sleapt last nite." 

An old King of Spades still exists, on the back of which 
is written: "Return thanks. Mrs. Frere presents her 
"compliments to Mr. Selwyn and returns him thanks for 
"his kind inquiries after her. ISTew Bond street." 

A packet of these visiting and invitation cards of the last 
century, dating between 1752 and 1764, were accidentally 
discovered a few years since; showing how the playing 
cards had been so used by the ISTorthumberland family. 
Many of these were printed from elegantly engraved 
copper plates, on the back of old playing cards. The visit- 
ing cards were about 3 by 2 inches; and the names of the 
Earl and Countess of Northumberland are printed on the 
backs of a half of the Three of Clubs and of the Queen of 
Diamonds, respectively. On the back also of the Eight of 
Spades, was a note from the Earl. The invitations to card 
parties were similarly printed from copper plates, but were 



VISITING CAKDS. 241 

large enough to cover the whole of the back of a playing 
card. Examples of these exist from the Countess of 
Grafton, as well as Lady JSTorthumberland, on the backs of 
an Ace and a Ten of Hearts and a Ten of Spades. At the 
bottom of one is added "without a hoop if agreeable," indi- 
cating how the monstrous hoops of those days, were 
regarded as nuisances, interfering with the free approach 
to the card table. 

The custom of visiting en hlanc, as it was called — 
that is, by leaving a card — was introduced in Paris, about 
the year 1770. It can be imagined that the old ladies and 
gentlemen, who dearly loved to show their costumes, 
regarded this fashion as fantastic; but the exigencies of 
society overcame the objection, and convenience carried the 
day. 

A lady of rank, who sent her compliments to an English 
parson written on the back of an old Ten of Hearts, 
received by way of answer, the following poetical retort : 

Your compliments, dear lady, pray forbear, 
Old English services are more sincere. 

You send ten hearts — the tithe is only mine, 
Give me but one and burn the other nine. 

The world-renowned Canova had his name on a card, on 
which was represented a block of marble, rough hewn from 
the quarry, drawn in perspective, and inscribed in large 
Roman capitals A. CAjSTOVA. Miss Berry and her sister 
Agnes, the intimate friends and correspondents of Horace 
Walpole, used one whereon were portrayed two nymphs in 
classical drapery, pointing to a weed-grown slab, on which 
is engraved "Miss Berrys." The one we are describing 

16 



242 IIITIIEK AND THITTTER. 

looks like a tombstone. One of the nynii)hs leads a lamb by 
a ribbon, to typify Miss Agnes Berry. It is said that a 
worm will turn, and so a lamb may slioAV fig'lit; as in fact, 
did these ladies, who published a series of Walpole's letters 
to themselves by way of answer to Lord Maeaulay's severe 
sketch of Walpole, published in the Edinhurgli Review, 
which the Miss Berrys tliought gave an untrue and unfair 
view of the character of their friend and patron. 

The cards, however, were not alvrays of the melancholy 
character above described, but were often made objects of 
artistic beauty, pleasant to the eye and worthy of preserva- 
tion. The greatest artists did not scruple to execute 
designs for such cards, and a few by Casanova have been 
preserved. 

Adam Bartsch, who was a lover of the canine species, 
drew a picture of a handsome spaniel sitting on his hind 
legs in a begging posture, holding in his mouth a card, 
bearing the name inscribed on it; and a second in which 
a savage dog has just torn a roll of paper \di\\ the date 
1795, beneath which is written, ''Adam Bartsch has the 
"pleasure of presenting his compliments and good wishes 
"for the JSTew Year." 

The late Emperor Napoleon III., had in his possession 
a Nine of Diamonds, which the great Napoleon had cov- 
ered with English phrases, at a time when he was endeav- 
oring to acquire some facility in that language. 

It is noticeable of the cards of English society that the 
landscapes, which were a favorite conceit for such cards, 
are all more or less faitliful. Bath, the city of English 
elegance of the period, is a favorite subject. Sometimes 



VISITING CAKDS. 243 

the scene selected is Milsom street, well known in the 
memoirs of the gallants of that day, with its long per- 
spective of fashionable houses. Sometimes the ISTorth 
Parade or Queen's Square, is so faithfully drawn, that 
Sheridan would have been able to point out his favorite 
residence, or Beau Brummel to identify himself amongst 
those depicted as parading the terrace. 

The Italian cards are of a very different style, contain- 
ing drawings of the antique, reproducing chefs d'oeuvres 
of the Greeks and Romans. In some are sacrifices of 
sheep or oxen; in some Psyche before Venus and her son, 
seated in a family conclave. 

The architect Blondel inscribed his name above the cor- 
nice of a ruined monument. 

The Germans engraved sometimes, the bust of their 
favorite hero beside their names. Por example, the Count 
of Drakslaw has that of the Archduke Charles defending 
the approach to Vienna, which is recogTiizable by the spire 
of its beautiful cathedral. Another card represents in its 
left-hand corner, a woman sitting with three children, two 
at her knees and one in her arms. A flight of quaintly- 
drawn angels bear garlands and gifts from the cloud which 
is dra-wn overhead, and the motto, "Benediction du ciel," 
with the names, "Les deux Comtesses de Windischgratz," 
appears on the white remainder of the card. 

Old and soiled packs of cards have been utilized for 
practical purposes. Mr. Chambers vouches for the two 
following stories:^ Once a worthy skipper, worn ahnost 
to death by foul weather and a sick crew, bethought him- 

1 "The Book of Days." 



244 HITHER AND THITHER. 

self that he had better make use of the services of a lot of 
steerage Irish who were aboard. They cheerfully agreed 
to work the ship in the absence of the regular crew on the 
sick list, but knowing nothing of the ropes were useless, 
notwithstanding their desire to help. 

The bright thought occurred to the master of the vessel 
to fix uj) a i3laying card, as a mark or tally, at each of the 
principal ropes. He put the red cards in the fore part of 
the ship and the black cards aft ; using the Hearts and 
Clubs on the starboard and Diamonds and Spades on the 
larboard. So when the order went to haul the Ace of 
Spades or Ten of Hearts the substitute Jack Tar was at his 
post in a twinkling, and no further mistakes occurred. 
Many a sailor has been longer in learning his duty 'fore the 
mast, than these merry, honest Irishmen who worked "by 
"the card." 

The second instance of a good use of an old pack vouched 
for by Mr. Chambers as a curious, but undoubtedly authen- 
tic historical anecdote, is as follows : Toward the end of tJie 
reign of Queen Mary a commission was granted to a Dr. 
Cole to go over to Ireland and commence a fiery crusade 
against the Protestants of that country. On reaching Ches- 
ter, in England, on his way, the Doctor was waited upon by 
the Mayor of the city, to v.diom he gleefully showed his 
commission, exclaiming with premature triumj)h, "Here is 
"what shall lash the heretics of Ireland." Mrs. Edmonds, 
the landlady of the Chester Inn, having a brother in 
Dublin, was disturbed by overlicaring these words, so when 
the Doctor courteously attended the Mayor down-stairs, she 
hastened to his room, opened his box, t<3ok out the commis- 



VISITIISTG CARDS. 245 

sion and put a pack of cards in its place. When the Doctor 
returned to his apartment, he put the box into his port- 
manteau without suspicion, and the next day sailed to 
Dublin. On his arrival he waited on the Lord Lieutenant 
and Privy Council, to whom he made a speech on the sub- 
ject of his commission, and then presented the box to his 
Lordship. But on opening it there appeared only a pack 
of cards, with the Knave of Clubs uppermost. The Doctor 
was petrified, and assured the Council that he had had a 
commission, but what was become of it he could not tell. 
The Lord Lieutenant answered, "Let us have another com- 
"mission, and in the meantime we can shuffle the cards." 
Before the Doctor could get his commission renewed Queen 
Mary died, and thus the persecution was prevented. 
Queen Elizabeth heard of the story and settled a pension of 
£4-0 per annum on Mrs. Edmonds, for having saved the 
Queen's Protestant subjectv^ in Ireland. 



Horse-Shoes, 



Horse-Shoes. 



''"V TAjSTITY of Vanities, all is Vanity," is an ancient 
V truism, and the ingenious minds of ISTero and 
his wife found a means of displaying that very 
common foible of the human character in their use even of 
so unlikely an object as horse-shoes. We are told by 
Suetonius that JSTero's mules had silver shoes^ and, accord- 
ing to the elder Pliny, ISTero's notorious wife, Poppsea, out- 
Heroded him in extravagance and caused the shoes of her 
delicate beasts to be made of gold.^ A similar piece of 
folly is related of Boniface, the third duke of Tuscany, one 
of the richest princes of his time, who went to meet Beatrix, 
his bride (mother of the well-known Matilda), about 1038, 
his whole train so magnificently decorated that "his horses 
"were not shod with iron, but with silver," He further 
insisted that even the nails should be of the same metal, 
and that when any of them dropped out they should belong 
to those who found them. Of this latter arrangement 
there is no record of any complaint having been made. 
This anecdote is related by a contemporary writer, but, 

* Lives of the twelve Csesars ; Nero, XXX. 
= Natural History; Book XXXIII, ehap. 49. 



250 HITHER AND THITHER. 

being told in verse, we may believe that he possibly 
indulged in poetical license. True or iintrne, it is a useful 
piece of history, as it proves that horse-shoes were fastened 
on with nails at the time of the author, as otherwise he 
could not have mentioned the fact. 

The question when iron shoes were first introduced, and 
how the shoes were originally fastened on to the horses, is 
never likely to be satisfactorily answered. Mules and 
camels are the beasts of burden first mentioned as having 
shoes, and as mules, camels and asses were used more 
commonly than horses in earlier times, this is to be 
expected. They were more tractable, and the shoeing was 
no doubt more easily performed on them. Some lay great 
stress on the fact that Homer speaks of the ''brazen-footed 
"horse," but this need not be regarded as conclusive evi- 
dence that horses wore metal shoes unless we can also bo 
sure that towers, men and women have been clad in brass 
because we find frequent mention in books of brazen 
towers, brazen lungs and brazen faces. 

It may fairly be concluded that the Canaanites did not 
shoe their horses, from the assertion that "then were the 
"horse-hoofs broken by the means of the prancings, the 
"prancings of their mighty onos,"^ for had their hoofs been 
shod either with iron or brass they would not have been 
broken by the prancing. 

Casaubin tells us that the practice of shoeing was not 
known anciently, and in the works of Zenophon and 
Vegetius, as well as other authors, methods are described 
for hardening the hoofs, but no clear intimation is any- 

* Judges V, 22. 



HORSE-SHOES. 251 

wliere given that either the Greeks or the Eomans made a 
practice of shoeing their horses to protect the hoofs from 
wear. The earliest metal shoes of which we find mention 
are described as being varionslj of copper, iron, silver and 
gold ; but before these came into use it would seem that 
camels and oxen, in times of war and during long journeys, 
were provided with leather coverings or bandages for the 
feet, the latter being som-etimes plaited from the fibres of 
plants. Unlike the rims of metal popularly known now- 
adays as horse-shoes, they were actual shoes which tied 
over the hoof; for Aristotle gives them the same name 
as was then given to the shoes, socks or soles of the com- 
mon people, which were made of strong ox leather. They 
were probably made of undressed leather. Horses in 
countries like Egypt, whepe the land is soft, naturally 
did not need shoes, though they have become indispensable 
in the modern days of macadamized public roads. At the 
beginning of the eighteenth century horse-shoes were still 
unknown in Ethiopia and Tartary; and in Japan, in the 
exceptional instances when horses were shod at all, they 
wore shoes such as those of the ancients. 

When first brought into use, they were almost certainly 
not fastened with nails, for Catullus speaks of the iron 
shoes of his time as easily drawn off; expressing a desire 
to throw a heavy townsman of his headlong off a bridge 
into the river, that he might, if possible, shake off his 
lethargy and leave his stupidity in the mud, "as the mule 
"leaves her iron shoe in the stiff slough.^ They were only 

^ In the Lamb and Grainger metrical collection, XVII. (To a town, 
on a stupid husband. Lamb ) . 



252 HITHER AND THITHER. 

put on in miiy places, or when the safety or pomp of the 
cattle required it. Even the mighty Vespasian once had 
to pull up in the middle of his royal progress and wait 
whilst the coachman put on the shoes of his mules. Their 
irregular and infrequent use in early times is confirmed 
hy the fact that Mithridates, wdien besieging the town of 
Cyzicus in his first war against the Romans, was obliged 
to send away his whole cavalry to Bithynia because the 
horses' hoofs were worn down and their feet disordered, an 
evil to which the horses "were often liable," which would 
not have been the case had they been shod with iron. 

The ancients ap2>ear at first to have plated them round 
the bottom of their feet, and to have drawn tliem over the 
hoofs, as the plated shoes, when they covered the hoofs, 
made a more glittering appearance, especially those of 
silver or gold, than if nailed at the bottom of their feet 
only. One ancient writer asserts that the horse-shoes of 
N^ero and his wife had the upper part only formed of these 
noble metals. 

The Russians in Kamchatka cover the feet of their 
dogs which draw their sledges on the ice, binding the 
leather or other covering round their feet so ingeniously 
that the claws of the animals project through small holes. 

Apparently it would seem that the Thessalonians were 
the first who protected their horses' hoofs with shoes of 
iron. 

When the modern horse-shoes were first invented, they 
were known by a Greek name, identifying them with their 
moon shape, and the earliest use of this name which has 
been discovered, is in the works of the Emperor Leo, the 



HOESE-SHOES, 253 

philosopher, in the ninth century. It is expressly stated 
that these were made of iron, and that they were fastened 
with nails. The most ancient nails hitherto found by 
antiquaries are those once belonging to a horse buried with 
Childeric I., who died in 481, and whose shoe was fastened 
with nine nails. The oldest iron shoe, or part of one that 
has been found is a portion of one belonging to Charle- 
magne's horse, in which are holes for the nails. 

Horse-shoes are supposed to have been introduced into 
England by William, the Conqueror. That king gave the 
city of Northampton, then valued at £40 per annum, as a 
fief to a certain person in consideration of his providing 
"shoes for his horses," and it is believed that Henry de 
Ferres, or de Ferrers, who came over with William, and 
whose descendants still bear in their arms six horse-shoes, 
received that surname because he was entrusted with the 
inspection of farriers. A similar transaction was 
arranged with one Henry de Averying, who held the 
Manor of Morton, in the county of Essex, of the King in 
chief, by service of a man and a horse worth ten. shillings 
and four horse-shoes for the then pending expedition 
against Wales. Perhaps, out of some similar transaction 
arose a singular and rather tyrannical custom which long 
prevailed at Oakliam, in Rutlandshire, the seat of Earl 
Ferrers, one of the peers of England. If any baron of 
the English realm passed through the place he forfeited 
one of his horse's shoes unless he chose to redeem it by a 
fine: the forfeited shoe, or if the fine was paid the one 
made in its place, was fixed upon the castle gates, inscribed 
with his name, in consequence of which custom the castle 



254 HITHEK AND THITHER. 

gates became in time covered with numerous shoes, some 
of unusual size and some gilt. 

In course of time certain of the properties situated in 
the city of London, which had been originally held by 
private persons in consideration of the nominal payment 
of a certain number of horse-shoes and nails, a large sura 
having been paid down for the king's use at the time of 
the original grant, became the property of the coi'poration 
of London, and to this day, when the Lord Mayor is for- 
mally presented in great state, on ISTovember 9th, to the 
Barons (or Judges) of the Court of Exchequer, who on 
behalf of the King express the approval of Llis Majesty to 
the election of the Lord Mayor, a certain number of naila 
are still counted out and handed to the officers of that court 
as payment of the duty and in assertion of the right of the 
corporation to the property in perpetuity. Two such 
instances are mentioned in the Great Eolls of 19 Henry 
III., and in the Rolls of the Exchequer of the first year of 
the reign of Edward I. One is that of Walter le Brun 
(marshal or farrier) of the Strand, who received a grant 
of a certain place in the parish of St. Clement's, to build a 
forge there, in consideration of six horse-shoes annually, 
and the other that of Walter Mareschal, or the farrier at the 
Howe Cross, who was bound to render annually forever 
six shoes with their nails as a reserved rent for a certain 
forge opposite to the Howe Cross. The former rent has 
therefore been paid over six hundred and fifty and the 
latter for nearly six hundred and twenty years. The cor- 
poration has been very careful to keep up the annual pay- 
ment of this duty ever since the proi>erty was acquired. 



HORSE-SHOES. 255 

Shakespeare puts into the mouth of King Lear, when 
the poor old man is babbling to Gloucester, the saying : 

"It were a delicate stratagem to shoe 

"A troop of horse with felt. I'll put 't in proof." 

This "stratagem" had actually been practiced some fifty 

years before the great poet was born. Lord Herbert, in 

his life of King Henry VIIL, writes : "And now, having 

feasted the ladies right royally for divers days, Llenry 

departed on 13 Oct. 1513, from Tournay to Lisle, whither 

he was invited by the Lady Margaret, who caused there 

a juste to be held in an extraordinary manner — the place 

being a fore-room raised high from the ground by many 

steps, and paved with black square stones, like marble; 

while the horses, to prevent sliding, were shod with felt 

or flocks : after which the ladies danced all night." 

In connection with horse-shoes exists the old popular 

tradition of its being an omen of good luck "if drinke be 

"spilled upon a man or if he find old iron," so that Dr. 

Home, in his "Daemonologie, or the Character of the Cry- 

"ing Evils of the Present Time" (1650), tells us, "How 

"frequent it is with people (especially of the more ignorant 

"sort, which makes the things more suspected) to think 

"and say, if they finde some pieces of iron, it is prediction 

"of good lucke to the finders ! if they find a piece of silver, 

"it is a foretoken of ill lucke to them." And among the 

good wishes enumerated by Holyday in his comedy of the 

"Marriage of the Arts" is included "That the horse-shoes 

"may never be pul'd from your threshold." We can well 

imagine how, whilst outwardly pretending to despise the 



256 HITHER AND THITHER. 

tradition, an old cynic would look around in hopes that 
nobody saw him, and carefully pick up the shoe against 
which he stumbled ; and how he would inwardly chuckle 
over his hoped for good luck, even whilst he had the hardi- 
hood to wa-ite in his "Reflections," published in 1G65, 
"The common people of this country have a tradi- 
"tion that 'tis a lucky thing to find a horse-shoe, and, 
"though 'twas to make myself merry with this fond con- 
"ceit of the superstitious vulgar, I stooped to pick it up." 
Why, of course, he went in to win the luck, in the same 
spirit that country maidens, if nobody is looking, courtesy 
to the new moon, or bemoan their ill luck if they are so 
unfortunate as to first see the new moon through glass. 

Another tradition is that horse-shoes act as a protection 
against evil spirits and wdtches by preventing them from 
crossing the threshold over which they are nailed. This 
practice resembles a custom of driving nails into the walls 
of cottages, which prevailed among the Romans, and which 
was believed to serve as protection against the plague. The 
poet Gay writes of the custom in his "Fable" of "The 
"Old Woman and her Cats" : 

. . . "Crowds of boys 
"Worry me with eternal noise; 
"Straws laid across my pace retard, 
"The horseshoe's nail'd (each threshold's guard) 
"The stunted broom the wenches hide, 
"For fear that I should up and ride; 
"They stick with pins my bleeding seat, 
"And bid me shew my secret teat." 

It has been suggested that the custom may have grown 
out of the still earlier practice of having sacred paintings 



HOESE-SHOES. 257 

on tlie exteriors of houses, as is still so common in the 
rural parts of Germany and Bavaria, especially in the 
Dolomite region. Such paintings may have in time 
becO'me more and more nearly obliterated by the weather, 
whilst the metal or gilded menisci over the heads of the 
Virgin or Saints lasted longer, becoming prominent objects 
which could not escape attention, hence, the respect 
originally given to a whole picture may have been con- 
tinued to its meniscus, and from that to the horse-shoe, 
which, after a time, was put up in substitution for the last 
fragment of the picture. Butler, in his "Hudibras," says 
of his Conjuror that he could 

"Chase evil spirits away by dint 
"Of sickle, horseshoe, hollow flint." 

A writer in the latter half of the seventeenth century 
mentions that most of the houses at the west end of London 
were thus protected to hinder the power of witches, who 
would other^vise enter them. On April 26, 1813, another 
writer counted no less than seventeen horse-shoes in one 
street in London, known as Monmouth street, though 
by 1841 that number had been reduced to five or six.^ 
I^or was this superstition confined wholly to the lower 
classes, for at Holly Lodge the residence of the Baroness 
Burdett-Coutts and Mr. Coutts, they, being superstitious, 
caused a rusty, old, broken horse-shoe to be fastened on the 
highest marble step by which the house is entered from 
the lawn. These preventives against witches even became 
rivals of the Stoup of Holy Water in the porches of 
^ Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain. 
17 



258 HITHER AND THITHER. 

cliurehes, tiles having been found under the porch of Stan- 
infield Church and many other places with horse-shoes 
upon them, put there with that object. 

A story was given in the newspapers some years since 
of a carpenter residing at Ely who, on being taken ill, 
imagined that a woman named Gotobed, whom he had 
ejected from one of his houses, had bewitched him. Some 
matrons who were assembled in the sick man's chamber 
agreed that the only way to protect him from the sorceries 
of the witch was to send for the blacksmith and have three 
horse-shoes nailed to the door. This was done, much to 
the anger of the supposed witch, who at first comj^laincd 
to the Dean of the Cathedral, but was laughed at by his 
Reverence. She then rushed in -wrath to the sick man's 
room, and, miraculous to tell, passed the Rubicon notwith- 
standing the horse-shoes. This wonder ceased when it was 
discovered that, in order to make the most of the job, the 
faitliless Vulcan had used a pair of donkey's shoes. 

Horse-shoes were always made by hand until 1835, 
when a machine was invented by which as many as fifty or 
sixty shoes can be made per minute. 



Mourning, 



Mourning. 



As statisticians state that with the lapse of every 
second of time one person dies/ it is not surprising 
that an immense amount of curious matter is 
found scattered up and down in books, concerning the dif- 
ferent ways, in which among various peoples the family 
and friends of the dead have outwardly expressed their 
grief, N^early every one must, many times in the course 
of an ordinary lifetime, have to go into mourning, and a 
large and interesting volume might be va-itten on the sub- 
ject — the dress adopted, the period of observance, personal 
behaviour, etc., though the gist of the subject can be com- 
pressed into a short space. 

The customs of the Jev/s are probably more fully known 
than those of any other nationality. They generally 
mou.rned the dead seven days, though the period was ex- 
tended, as in the cases of Aaron and Moses, to thirty days. 
During this period the people indulged in loud and violent 
weeping, rending the clothes (which nowadays is symbol- 
ized by running a penknife through a garment), smiting 

^ The question is disputed. The "World Almanac" some years ago 
suggested the figures of: Births, 70; deaths, 67, per minute. 



262 HITHER AND THITHER. 

the breast, cutting off the hair and beard, lying on the 
ground, walking about barefooted, and abstaining from 
washing and anointing themselves. The strangest thing 
is that in some of the old tombs opened in Palestine, as 
well as in Greece and Italy, are found lachrymatories, or 
tear bottles, in which it was customary for mourners to 
preserve their tears. Travellers have often written of the 
extraordinary readiness with which Eastern people can, 
under strong excitement, and even when only filling the 
post of hired mourners, shed great quantities of tears. 

The Chinese who are special adepts at copious weeping, 
mourn in white ; and every article of dress must be of that 
colour when the loss is that of a near relative. When the 
loss is in the second degree, grief is shown by simply wear- 
ing caps and girdles of white linen ; and if the relationship 
to the dead is remote, they put on merely shoes and a queue 
of blue. The laws of the country are of an exceedingly 
paternal character and the death of a parent or husband 
must be mourned, willy-nilly, under penalty of sixty 
blows and a year's banishment. In the case of a father 
or mother the law requires a mourning of three years, 
unless the survivor is a government official, when the 
period is limited to twenty-seven months. When an Em- 
peror dies, all his subjects let their hair grow for a hun- 
dred days ; but the custom of pigtails, no doubt, consider- 
ably modifies the discomfort of all, even of those, who con- 
templating a visit to a "celestial" barber, have deferred 
their visit too long. At funerals the relatives of the deceased 
person furnish all who take part in the procession with 
mourning dresses ; as gloves, or gloves and scarfs, are given 



MouEiifiisrG. 263 

in Europe and America. In England it was anciently the 
custom to give rings and suits of clothes. 

The Greeks and Romans were not very dissimilar in 
their customs. The Athenian custom was to mourn for 
thirty days; but in Sparta only for ten. They wore a 
coarse black dress, and in ancient times cut off the hair, 
additionally cutting off the manes of their horses through- 
out the whole army when a Greek general died. Both 
Greeks and Romans employed hired mourning women at 
funerals, much in the same way as the English hired mutes, 
to stand at the doors of the deceased's residence, and accom- 
pany the funeral party to the burial ground. 

In the time of the Roman Republic both sexes wore 
black or dark blue, but the men did not cut off the hair or 
beard, and under the Empire, whilst the men continued to 
wear black, the women wore white; the men laying aside 
their black garments after a few days. Under the Re- 
public, on the death of a great man (limited to the occasion 
of the death of an Emperor under the Empire), all busi- 
ness was stopped; and the temples, baths, forum, schools 
of exercise, and in fact all places of concourse, were closed. 
The custom of women wearing white, commenced with the 
adoption of a white veil by the Roman women, in the reign 
of Augustus, which was subsequently extended to the use 
of a complete costume of white. In Plutarch's life of 
Is^uma Pompilius we find that "ISTuma did inhibite that a 
"childe under three years should be bewayled, and that 
"the elder should be mourned no more monethes than he 
"had lived yeres." ^ 

^ In no case, however, was the mourning to continue for more than 
ten months. 



264 HITHER AND THITHER. 

The Lycians, who -were very stern in their views, 
regarded grief as unmanly, and had a law compelling men, 
if they went into mourning at all, to put on female gar- 
ments. The Japanese wear while, but relatives in the 
ascending line, and seniors, neither mourn their junior 
kindred, nor go to their funerals. Mr. A. B. Mitford, in 
his "Tales of Old Japan," published in 1874, gives a 
translation from a Japanese document, detailing the proper 
observances in mourning, the conclusion of which runs, 
''he should avoid entering wine shops or tea houses on his 
"return from the funeral." When the Japanese are in 
mourning they stay at home for fifty days, abstain from 
animal food, and from saki or rice beer, which they always 
drink hot ; and neither shave their heads, nor pare their 
nails. This period of fifty days is succeeded by thirteen 
months of "second mourning," during which the mourner 
is not allowed to wear bright colours, or enter a Shinto 
temple. Long periods of mourning are only observed on 
the death of parents ; for other relatives the period varies 
from thirty days to thirteen months for a husband, and 
from three days to seven days for cousins and their 
children. 

In Arabia men wear no mourning; but the women 
scream, tear their hair, and throw earth on their heads. 
The latter have also the disagreeable habit of staining their 
hands and feet with indigo, which they suffer to remain on 
for eight days. During this time they abstain from tasting 
milk, on the ground that its white colour ill accords with 
their gloom of mind. 

The Court rule in the Byzantine Empire is very free 



MOTJENTN-G. 265 

and easy. When the father, mother, wife, son or grandson 
of an Emperor dies during the reign of the Emperor, the 
latter clothes himself in white garments "for as long a 
"period as he considers proper," and afterwards changes 
them for yellow, then for yellow embroidered in gold and 
precious stones, edged witii trimmings of purple, finally 
resuming his imperial costume. 

In Fiji the lords of creation certainly undergo consider- 
able discomfort, if not indignity, during periods of mourn- 
ing. The mourners sleep on the bare ground, and use only 
leaves for dress. The women when a chief dies, burn their 
bodies and amputate their fingers, as many as fifty to one 
hundred being cut off, to be hung on his grave ; and "about 
"the tenth day" the women scourge all the men, excepting 
the highest chiefs. An equally unpleasant custom prevails 
in the Sandv\dch Islands, where the inhabitants paint the 
lower parts of their faces black, and knock out their front 
teeth. In Syria it used to be the custom to weep for the 
dead for several days in solitary places; but amongst the 
moderns it is not unusual for families, in moderate cir- 
cumstances, to be ruined by the expensive feasts, and other 
commemorations, vvhich are now held after the funerals, 
and extend over a period running into weeks. 

The Persians and Scythians rend their garments with 
v/ailing, and cut off their hair. 

Almost every kno^vn colour has been used as the mourn- 
ing cloak. In Turkey, violet ; in Egypt, yellow or filemot ; 
in Ethiopia, brown or grey; in Syria, Cappadocia, and 
Armenia, sky colour; while the use of other colours, such 
as white, blue and black has been already mentioned. 



-OG HITHER AND TJllTllKR. 

Tn Spain the colour chosen was wliite nntil 1498, as it 
wns ;ils() in Frnnco, in nhlcn times. Tlie Kings of France 
iiioiii'u in vinlct ; niid llic j\inu's of Enii'hmd, as KinQ;s of 
France, nsed t(^ do tlie same. Danuenu tells ns that on 
some ])id)ll(' occasion at the Court of France, James IT., 
after his exile, wore violet, 'vlt snri)rised ns," he says, 
"to see two Kings of France." In ISGO we learn from 
Galignani's Messenger, that the Empress Engenie, as well 
as tlie other ladies, wen^ in wliit(^ at a hall given at the 
Prussian emhassv, in conseciuence of the mourning for 
a Prince. 

The colours seem to have Ix^en selected for a great variety 
of reasons. While was selected as \\\o syudxd of ])urity 
and inncx^ence; hlach, in remend)rance of darkness and 
death ; brown or grey, of the dust to which the hody 
returns, or the colour of the earth which receives it ; hlue, 
or sky colonr, of ihe ])lace 1(^ Avliieh it was ho])(Hl the dead 
had attained, that is, the hc^avens ; yellow, of decay, the 
dead being com]iared to leavers and flowers, which turn yel- 
low as th(\v Avither and die; violet, being a mixture of 
black and blue, as the end)h^m of mingled sorrow and h(^pe. 

The references in the early Avriters and ]ioels to the 
colours of mourning are very numerous. Cough gives a 
great nnnd)er of references to the classics to prove that the 
colonr of mourning has in most instances been black from 
the earliest antiquity,^ though Plutarch is to be quoted on 
the other sid(^: ''The women in their UKmrnyng .... 
'Svere elollicd b(ilh(> tluy and their kinsfolk in wliiu^ 
*'a])parel, like as then tlu^ <l(^d body was wra])])ed in whitc^ 
' Scpulclirnl TiioTunnoiits. WA. II. p. 20. 



MOURNING. 2GT 

"clothes." The white "coloiire was thought fittest for the 
"ded, because it is clere, pure, and sincer, and leaste 
"defiled." ^ Black was- the color, if it be admitted to be 
a color at all, adopted by tlie majority of peoples, as pre- 
sumably the fittest emblem of the sorrow or grief with 
which the mind is supposed to be clouded. As death is 
the privation of life, and black a privation of light, so 
this color was chosen as fitting to denote sadness. 

The thought in the following lines is very cheerful and 

bright : 

"Six pretty maids pray let me have 
"To bear me to the silent grave, 
"All cloth'd in white — a comely show 
"To bear me to the shades below." 

Court and public mourning are worn in both the conti- 
nents of Europe and America on the occurrence of the 
death of the highest personages. It was so in the United 
States on the deaths of Franklin, Washington, Lafayette 
and Lincoln. In Europe the details of Court mourning 
are the subject of very minute and explicit rules, pre- 
scribed by authority, and officially published for the guid- 
ance of those who are bound to wear it. 

It cannot be said that the apparel is always indicative 
of any real feeling. When Louis XL had accomplished 
the death of an obstructive in his ambitious path, he 
received the news that his secret manoeuvre had been suc- 
cessful with solemnity ; took off his celebrated cap with the 
little images of saints in its rim, muttered a prayer, and 
announced: "The Court will go into mourning for three 

^Langley's translation of Polydore Vergil. 



268 HITHER AND THITHER. 

"weeks." What a scene for actors hereafter to depict; 
and how strongly mnst his feelings have been in disso- 
nance with the assumed apparel ! Bluff King Hal put on 
Vt^hite mourning for the unfortunate Anne Ijoloyn, though 
crimson "would have been a much suitable colour," for the 
suit in which he was formally betrothed to Jane Seymour, 
upon the morning following that on which Anne's head 
dropped on the scaffold on Tower Hill. Perhaps he was 
of the mind of the poet Pope, who wrote : 

"Grieve for an hour, jierhaps, then movirn a year.'" 

Anne Bole;^^l had previously worn yellow mourning for 
Catherine of Ari-agon, and Strutt tells us, that at the 
funeral of Mary, Queen of Scots, the ladies had "Parris- 
"heads and barbes and the gentlemen whjte headdresses." 
Jesse says that James I. "issued an indecent order that no 
"mourning should be worn for his deceased son,"- Prince 
Henry ; and according to Sir James Finett, a nice observer 
and Master of Ceremonies to the Court, the Princess Eliza- 
beth obeyed her father in the letter but mourned her 
brother, to whom she was strongly attached, "apparelled 
"in white. "^ 

In civilized nations the gradual return from black to 

gay colours, is through the intermediate hues of purple and 

violet, which denote tlie second mourning. So well is this 

regulated that in many mourning establishments the 

various departments are duly labelled as the "Deep" and 

"Light Affliction" departments. jSTor if you go to purchase 

^ Elegy on an Unfortvmate Lady, line 56. 

= "Memoirs of the Covirt of England," Vol. I, p. 140. 

^ But see Jesse again. The matter is somewhat in dispute. 



MOUENING. 269 

a hatband, must you feel hurt at the soft, sympathizing 
tone of voice in which the shopkeeper, while complying 
with your request, remarks: "Yes, sir; certainly, sir — a 
"deep band, sir ? a large legacy ?" 

The great and Avasteful extravagance by families, quite 
unable to afford it, upon lavish funeral entertainments has 
afforded many writers opportunities for including in their 
romances strange, but nevertheless historically correct, 
accounts of the shifts to which such extravagances have 
subsequently reduced the survivors ; and perhaps in none 
has this been more cleverly done than in the "Bride of 
"Lammermoor," where the shifts of old Caleb Balderstone 
to hide the poverty of the master, whose last revenues had 
been expended on the occasion of the death of his father, 
are so humorously delineated. 

In the beginning of the reign of Charles II., at a lord's 
funeral at Shrewsbury, during the customary oration there 
stood upon the cofSn a large pot of wine out of which every- 
one drank to the health of the deceased, and another writer 
says that the funeral entertainments were so profuse on 
these occasions that it cost less to portion off a daughter 
than to bury a dead wife. 

In the "Fasten letters" ^ is an account of one such revel 
which shows that for three days one man was occupied in 
flaying beasts ; and that seven barrels of beer, five of ale, 
one of ale of greatest assize, thirty-eight gallons of ale, 
and a runlet of red wine of fifteen gallons, were con- 
sumed ; and that five coombs of malt at one time and ten 

^ No. 549. The funeral was that of John Paston. The account 
fills pages. 



270 lIITIIEll AND TIIITIIEK. 

at another were brewed up specially for the occasion. The 
food, which was in proportion, and other drinks, included 
three hundred and ten eggs, twenty gallons of milk, eight 
gallons of cream, twenty-two sheep, forty-one pigs, forty- 
nine calves ; besides geese, chickens, capons and such gear. 
In order that those who were at this revel, which was held 
in a priory at Bromholm, on the northeast coast, might 
make a due and comely appearance, a barber was occupied 
five days in smartening up the monks for the ceremony. 
This is a dear record, as Dudley, Lord K'orth, writes : "Nor 
"are all banquets (no more than music) ordained for 
"merry humour, some being used even at funeralls." 

During the Commonwealth an account of a carefully- 
conducted funeral is given. It is to be found in the life 
of Sir William Dugdale.^ One Mr. Fisher Dilke, a gen- 
tleman of means, but cynical disposition, lost his wife. 
"She was a frequenter of conventicles; and dying before 
"her husband, he first stripped his barn wall to make her 
"a coffin ; then bargained with the clerk for a groat to make 
"a grave in the churchyard, to save eightpence by one in 
"the church. This done, he speaketh about eight of his 
"neighbours to meet at his house, for bearers ; for whom he 
"provided three twopenny cakes and a bottle of claret. 
"And some being come, he read a chapter of Job till all 
"were then ready; when, having distributed the cake and 
"wine among them, they took up the corpse, he following 
"them to the grave. Then putting himself in the parson's 
"place (none being there), the corpse being laid in the grave 
"and a spade of mould cast thereon, he said : 'Ashes to 

^Page 106. 



MOUENING. 271 

" ^ashes, dust to dust ;' adding, 'Lord now lettest Thou 
" "^Tliy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen 
" 'Thy salvation,' and so returned home." 

One pretty custom is said to have been observed at 
Stonesiiekl, in Oxfordshire, where while the clergyman 
read the sentences beginning, "Man that is born of a 
"woman," etc., four girls held the white pall by its four 
corners over the coffin; then, after the coffin had been 
lowered into the grave, they held the pall over the grave 
in a similar manner, until the service was concluded. 

Freemasons were formerly in the habit of throwing 
gloves into the grave of a deceased brother; but in Malta, 
and also in the United States at the present time, instead 
of gloves, when the clergyman has finished, the Worshipful 
Master advances and drops three pieces of evergreen into 
the grave or tomb. On his retiring, the Wardens do the 
same, and lastly the brethren. 

At the beginning of the last century it was customary 
to give religious books to the persons who attended funerals 
with an inscription on the cover, such as : 

"In memory 

of the 

Rev'd. Mr. Henry Lukin 

who died 17 September 1719 

aged 62." 

Black sealing-wax was the only token of mourning 
employed u.ntil comparatively recently in letter writing, 
instances of its use being known as far back as 1556. Then 
the use of quarto sized paper blacked at the edges came in ; 
but black borders to paper were unkno^vn in England till 



273 HITHER AND THITHER. 

1754, ill wliicli year a letter written to Walpijlc from 
Florence, on paper with a narrow mourning border con- 
tains this passage : "I believe you never saw any thing 
"like it before — here everybody uses it but myself. I 
"begged a sheet, for this occasion only, and another to keep 
"as a curiosity." Black edged note paper came into very 
general use about IS-iO. 

A writer of the present century who despised the assump- 
tion towards strangeness of mourning which the modern 
custom has so ridiculously exaggerated, says : "I knew a 
"young lady who wore on the same finger a ring set around 
"with death's heads and cross marrow bones for the loss 
"of her father, and another prettily embellished with burn- 
"ing hearts pierced through with darts in respect of her 
"lover;" and he adds as to writing paper, "An acquaint- 
"ance of mine has contrived a new sort of mourning 
"l^aper, as the margin of the elegant paper from France, 
"for the use of fine ladies and gentlemen, is prettily 
"adorned with flowers, true lovers' knots, little cupids and 
"amorous posies in red ink, he intends that the margin of 
"his paper shall be stamped in black inlv, with the figure of 
"tomb stones, hour glasses, bones, skulls and other emblems 
"of death to be used by persons of quality Avhen in 
"mourning." 

Really the remarks are hardly too severe in the face of 
the absurd mourning paper not infrequently used, where 
the black margins are so enormous that there is hardly 
space left for the writing intended to be put upon the 
sheets. 



Friday. 



Friday. 



WHATEVER explanations may be made, yet tlie 
fact remains that in the popular mind beliefs in 
lucky and unlucky days exist ; and beyond doubt 
the belief in Friday being an unlucky day has taken the 
precedence, in general credit, of all such superstitions. 

The ill odour of Friday among the days of the week, can- 
not be due to any astrological tradition, for Friday is the 
day of Venus — and Venus is a fortunate planet. IsTor is 
the old rhyming proverb: "Friday's moon, come when it 
"will, comes too soon," sufficiently general to accou,nt for 
this belief, which is accepted amongst a large number of 
nations. It was popularly credited as a fact that Good 
Friday was a "bonanza day" for witches ; and in the last 
dying speech and confession, in 1633, of Margaret John- 
son, a reputed witch, she says : "Good Friday is one con- 
"stant day for a generall meeting of witches, and on Good 
"Friday last they had a generall meetinge neere Pendle 
"Water syde." Lucky was that benighted traveller on a 
Good Friday who was possessed of the old charm for curing 
the bewitched : 

"Upon Good Friday 

"I will fast while I may 

"Until I hear them knell 

"Ovxr Lord's own bell." 



276 IIITIIEE AND THITIIEE. 

The evil odour of the day is attributed in au old manu- 
script preserved in the British Museum to the fact that 
Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit on a Friday and 
died on a Friday ; and in the south of France the term 
Friday Tree — in its reference to the ''accursed tree" — is 
applied to an unsuccessful undertaking or person; being 
used to express a trial or misfortune. On the other hand, 
the old lines 

"Friday's dream on Saturday told 

"Is sure to come true if it's ever so old," 

speak both good and ill of dreams dreamt on that day; 
inasmuch as the dreamer's satisfaction at the fulfilment 
of the dream, will naturally be regulated by the fact 
whether it was a desirable or an unpleasant one. Sir 
Thomas Overbury in his description of "a faire and happy 
"milk-mayd," writes: "Her dreams are so chaste, that 
"she dare tell them; only a Fridaie's dreame is all her 
"superstition: that she conceales for feare of anger." ^ 

There can be little doubt but that the belief in Friday 
being an unluck}^ day originated in its being the day of tlie 
Crucifixion. Chaucer refers to the traditional belief where 
he speaks of the death of Richard Coeur de Lion on a 
Friday, in these lines : 

"0 Gaunfred, decre maister soverayn 

"That, wlian thy worthy kyn"; Richard was slayn 

"With shot, complcynedcst his dceth so soore 

"Why ne hadde I now thy sentence and thy loore 

"The Friday for to chide, as diden ye? — 

"For on a Friday, soothly slayn was he."* 

^ Characters, etc. 

"The Nonnes Prcestes Tale. 



FRIDAY. 277 

The Brahmins of India say that on a Friday no busi- 
ness must be commenced; and among the Finns, whoever 
undertakes any new business on a Monday or a Friday, 
is warned to expect very little success. The rigid custom 
of the Spaniards never to undertake anything of conse- 
quence on a Friday is well known ; whilst the ^Neapolitans 
foretell evil of two days, their proverb running: "JSTeither 
"on Friday nor Tuesday marry or journey commence." 
On the other hand, the great Mogul or Shah of Persia, 
thought differently of the day, and used at the end of his 
devotions, to turn to his attendant and say, "O that my 
"death may happen on a Friday, for blessed is he who 
"dieth on that day." ^ 

The Kegistrar-General of England says in one of his 
reports: "Seamen will not sail and women will not wed 
"on Friday so willingly as on other days of the week;" 
and remarks that out of four thousand and fifty-seven 
marriages, in the midland districts of England, not two 
per cent, were solemnized on Friday ; while thirty-two per 
cent, were celebrated on Sunday. The next day in favor 
was Monday with twenty-one per cent., and then Saturday 
with seventeen per cent. This dislike of being married on 
a Friday, is also preserved in the West Sussex belief, that 
"owing to Adam and Eve having eaten the forbidden fruit 
"on a Friday, that of all days was to be avoided for mar- 
"riages, or you and your wife will lead a cat and dog life." 

A different state of things has been found to prevail in 
Scotland, for the City Chamberlain of Glasgow, a few 
years since, wrote that it was a well established fact, that 

* Memoirs of the Mogul Empire, by Evadut Khan, p. 10. 



278 HITHER AND THITHER. 

nine-tentlis of the marringes in GlasgoAv were celebrated 
on Friday, and only a few on Tnesdays and Wednesdays ; 
while Saturday and Monday were still more rarely adopted. 
He adds : "I have never heard of snch a thing in Glasgow 
"as a marriage on Sunday." It would appear, therefore, 
that in Scotland, Friday is the lucky day of the week; at 
least, for marriages. In the west of Scotland, on the event- 
ful day of marriage, which was "always a Friday," great 
attention was paid to every incident; for if the bride broke 
a dish, or the postman forgot to deliver a letter to the 
bride until he was some way on his journey and had to 
return, or some soot came down the chimney, it was a 
bad omen for the future wedded life. 

It seems that in parts of America at least, many persons 
look upon Friday as an unlucky da}^, for a statement, dated 
Philadelphia, is printed, announcing that during one entire 
year only one couple was married by tlie Mayor on that 
day of the week. 

If it was not good to marry on a Friday, so, in parts 
of England, it was rendered disagreeable, at least to the 
parties immediately concerned, to court on that day. A 
man in the north of Lancashire was recently busy most 
industriously belabouring a frying-pan, exactly in the way 
country people do when bees are swarming ; and as it was 
not the season of the year for bees to swarm, he was asked 
what induced him to make that hideous noise. His answer 
was, "Why this be Friday and there is a woman doMTi the 
"lane a'courting. Women doing that there thing o' a 
"Friday is always sarved so." 

The evil repute of Friday led to the publication of a 



FRIDAY. 2Y9 

singular statistical fact by Monsieur Minarcl. '"Friday," 
he says, ''is considered such an unlucky day in France that 
"not only is the number of travellers by rail much smaller 
"on that, than on other days, but the difference is also 
"sensibly felt in the receipts of the omnibusses." But it 
was not always so in France, for it is related of King 
Henry IV., that he considered Friday lucky, and began 
his undertakings by preference on that day. 

One sarcastic writer has suggested, that it is probable 
that the dislike to this day, arose from the fact that it is 
late in the week, and both money runs short among the 
poor, and time amongst those who ought to have been busy ; 
and perhaps also, because Friday is a fast day in Catholic 
countries, and so in olden times people looking back would 
remember Fridays, as generally associated with something 
less pleasant than other days. 

In the Domestic Series of the Calendar of State papers 
is preserved the following curious entry: "1620 April 6 
"Thomas Folvety solicits the permission of Lord Zouch, 
"Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports to kill a hare on Good 
"Friday, as huntsmen say that those who have not a hare 
"against Easter must eat a red herring." 

Sailors, who are most generally credited with this super- 
stition, have not always come to grief when sailing on a 
Friday; for it was on a Friday, the 3d of August, 1492, 
that Columbus set sail from Palos, in Spain, in three 
caravels, carrying one hundred and twenty men: begin- 
ning on a Friday, strange to say, the greatest and most 
momentous maritime enterprise ever undertaken by man, 
and which entitled him to be called the Discoverer of the 
New World. 



280 HITHER AND TIIITnER. 

It is notorious that sailors as a body, even if they now 
do so to a less degree than heretofore, did regard it as 
most unlucky, and as tempting Providence, to sail on a 
Friday. It is doubtful, however, what truth is to be 
credited to the story, alleged by Cooper, the novelist, to be 
an event of which he had personal knowledge, that to dis- 
abuse sailors of the superstition against sailing on a Friday, 
a ship was begun on a Friday, the first plank laid on a 
Friday, launched on a Friday, commanded by a captain 
named Friday, sailed on a Friday, and was never heard 
of more. This same story is attributed elsewhere to the 
action of some gentlemen of Xew York who wished to 
"disabuse the \ailgar ;" but with the same result.^ 

It is related of Admiral, the Earl of Dundonald, that 
when he was in command of H.M.S, "Wellesley," pursuant 
to orders he got under way from Plymouth, on a Friday, 
the 24th of March, 1848 ; but after the ship got outside 
the breakwater, she Avas recalled by the Port Admiral, and 
did not leave again till the next day. Her return was 
for the purpose of taking in mail bags, but the firm belief 
of the men was, that the gallant Admiral purposely left 
something behind to avoid going to sea on the unlucky day. 

The ill-fated "Amazon," carrying mails to the West 
Indies, sailed from Southampton, under command of Cap- 
tain Symons, on Friday, the 2d of January, 1852; and 
on the very same day the Birkenhead troopship, whose 

' In fact the story is of wide currency. Walsh in his "Curiosities of 
"Popular Customs" quotes Mrs. Rebecca Harding Davis as telling it. 
In her version Wilmington, Del., is the place of the building of" the 
boat; Isaac Harvey the name of the builder; and "Friday, of Wil- 
"mington," the name of the boat. 



281 



disastrous loss was accompanied by a terrible loss of life, 
sailed from Portsmouth. ]S[either ship returned. An 
officer on the Melbourne Koyal Mail Steamer, which 
subsequently came to grief, wrote from Lisbon to a rela- 
tive: "I joined the ship on a Friday, I procured my 
"register ticket on a Friday, the ship left London on a 
"Friday, and she eventually sailed from Plymouth on a 
"Friday." It is singular that on leaving Plymouth he 
mentioned his apprehension at again starting on this appar- 
ently ill-omened day and that his fears were soon after 
realized. 

One curious tradition about Friday, related by Del Pio 
in his "Disquisitions on Magic," is that it has long been 
an unlucky day for cutting one's nails ; a notion which in 
a somewhat extended form prevails in France, for it is 
unlucky in that country to cut the nails on any day which 
has an "r" in its name, viz : Mardi, Mercredi or Vendredi 
(Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday). Yet when one steps 
into Holland it is quite different, as by cutting the nails 
there on a Friday, one is protected from toothache. Ac- 
cording to Ausonius, however, among the Romans Wed- 
nesday was the proper day for that important operation. 

It is an old belief that the observance of the custom of 
eating hot cross buns on Good Friday, protects the house 
in which they are eaten from fire, besides bringing other 
good luck; but all the best feelings and beliefs of child- 
hood, in the propriety of thus doing, are put to flight by 
studying the antiquaries^ who elaborate a theory, that 
these buns are nothing but the cakes against the prepara- 
^ Hutchinson, Bryant, etc. 



282 HITHER AND THITHER. 

tion of wliicli the propliet Joremiali invei<i"liod wlion lio 
wrote the Israelitish "women kneaded their don2;h to 
"make cakes to the Qneen of ITeaven;" ^ and state that the 
sacred cakes offered at the Arkite Temple, were called 
"bo\is ;" in one of its cases "bonn," or as the Latins would 
write it "bnn," wlience we have borrowed our English 
word bun. Alack, alack ! we are to believe that from a 
pagan source has originated the old ecclesiastical custom 
of selling a sort of consecrated cakes called buns on Good 
Friday. Perhaps, be it said for our comfort, the Christian 
practice is none the worse for having been originally 
pagan; as probably the buns, saffron cakes, or symnels of 
Good Friday, through their "being, formerly at least, 
"unleavened, may hare a retrospect to the unleavened 
"bread of the Jews; in the same manner as lamb at Easter 
"to the Paschal Lamb."^ 

Various places and streets have been named Friday. 
]Srear Arundel, in England, on a Down, the property of the 
Duke of Norfolk, are extensive earthworks forming a 
regular encampment, knovTi by the name of "Friday 
"Church ;" and an important street in Cheapside, London, 
is called "Friday Street;" but Stow, in his "Survey of 
"London," published in 1598, says this street was "so 
"called by fishmongers dwelling there and serving Friday's 
"market ;" an explanation, which, however good in itself, 
will not explain the numerous Friday streets in the other 
counties of England ; as, for example, Surrey and Suffolk, 
in which seven or eight instances exist. 

^Jeremiah vii, 18; xliv, 19. 
^Gentleman's Magazine, 



283 



It is a tradition in tlie County of Hampshire, in villages 
around the city of Winchester, that if parsley seed be so^\ti 
on any other day than Good Friday, it will not come 
double. 

Another strange lore attaches to bread baked on Good 
Friday. It was said that it would keep good for more than 
a year, and a faithful Shropshire domestic was most indig- 
nant that her master should doubt such a fact. "Why, 
"sir," she said, "everybody bakes Good Friday bread — it's 
"good for babies when they have the belly ache;" and to 
clench the matter, she added, "I myself know of an old 
"Shropshire woman living in London who from mere force 
"of habit goes on baking Good Friday bread, year after 
"year, and always finds it good when the anniversary comes 
"around." On another occasion a lady inquired of a 
labourer's wife, in Warwickshire, how her neighbour's little 
son was. The latter replied that he had been very poorly 
with a bowel complaint and that nothing his mother gave 
him did him any good, "so," she continued, "I took him 
"a piece of Good Friday bread and grated some of it in a 
"little brandy — the child took it and it cured him. Good 
"Friday bread never grows mouldy and is very useful in 
"brandy as a medicine. The piece I have now has been 
"baked seven or eight years. It is quite good, but very 
"dry. I remember my mother having some that had been 
"made more than twenty years, and I always keep it 
"wrapped up in paper in a box upstairs." 

The loaves or buns so preserved, were also used as a 
panacea for all the diseases to which domestic animals are 
liable, and a Good Friday loaf so preserved, would prevent 



284 HITHER AND THITHER. 

other broad in the house placed with it from going ropy, 
although baked at another period of the year. 

What further qualities could be desired ? 

Perhaps the whole matter is well summed up in the lines 
from "Poor Pobin's Almanac," published in 1733: 

"Good Friday comes this month, the old woman runs 
"With one or two a penny hot cross buns, 
"Whose virtue is, if you believe Avhat's said, 
"Tliey'll not grow mouldy like the common bread." 



Fables. 



Fables. 



IT is too generally assumed that the subject of fables is 
one that is only fit for juvenile readers. As a fact, it 
is a matter of wide literary interest; one that has 
attracted the attention of very learned students; and one 
on which writers and readers are still very much in the 
dark. 

To define a fable or an apologue is not easy. Oliver 
Goldsmith in his essay upon fables, says: "Fable is the 
"method of conveying truth under the form of an 
"allegory." 

Lafontaine, in speaking of his collection of fables, calls 
an apologue : 

"A comedy where hundred acts convene 
"In which the Universe supplies the scene." 

In effect an apologue is a kind of little drama with a 
proposition, a plot and a denouement. 

De la Motte defines it as "an instruction under the 
"allegory of action." 

Early critics divided fables into three classes: rational, 
moral and mixed. 



288 HITHER AND THITHER. 

Rational fables are parables or relations of things sup- 
posed to have been said or done by men, and which might 
possibly have been said and done, though in reality they 
were not, such as the parables of the Bible. For example : 
"The Ten Virgins ;" "The Prodigal Son ;" and Xathan's 
parable of the "Ewe Lamb." 

Moral fables are those wherein not only beasts, but trees 
and other inanimate substances are introduced as actors 
and speakers. This class of fable is exemplified in the 
volume of ^sop, and in the Old Testament in the stories 
of "The Trees electing a King," and "The Thistle and 
"the Cedar." Though the rational fable might be true, 
the moral could not, because brutes and stocks cannot 
speak. 

Mixed fables are those wherein men and brutes are 
introduced conversing together ; or Mdiere the rational and 
moral fables are mixed in their construction. 

Justin, the Latin historian, gives one of the latter. A 
Ligurian collated a fable to alarm an ancient Gaulish king 
against the Massilians, Avho after the marriage of Protis 
and Gyptis had founded Marseilles. He told them a dog, 
big with young, begged a shepherd a place to lay her whelps 
in, this favor granted, she further begged leave to rear 
them there. At length the whelps being grown up, the 
mother depending on the strength of her family, claimed 
the right to the place as her own. "In like manner," he 
continued, "the people of Marseilles, who are now regarded 
"as your tenants, will one day become the masters of your 
"territory." ^ 

' Book XLIII, chap. iv. 



289 



A true fable must consist of a clear, probable, short and 
pleasant narrative, with a pithy interpretation to show the 
moral sense or design thereof. 

The great writers of fables are not many ; and who they 
really were is a matter of endless dispute and argument. 

The two fables alluded to in the Old Testament are 
amongst the very oldest extant. They are very familiar. 

The first relates ^ that Gideon being dead, his bastard 
son, Abimelech, slew all his brethren, three score and ten 
persons, Jotham alone escaping. In anger at the rejection 
from the judgeship Jotham related the story of the trees 
going to anoint a king over them. How that the olive re- 
fused to leave his fatness and go to be promoted ; then that 
the fig tree refused to forsake his sweetness and good fruit ; 
and again that the vine would not leave his wine which 
cheereth God and man. But that the bramble accepted, in- 
viting the trees to come and put their trust in his shadow. 
Jotham enforced the story by showing the wrong done by 
Abimelech, which would redound to their misery. 

The second ^ tells that when Amaziah provoked Jehoash 
and was overcome and spoiled, Jehoash warned him before- 
hand, saying : "The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the 
"cedar that was in Lebanon, saying: ^Give thy daughter 
" ^to my son to wife ;' and there passed by a wild beast 
"that was in Lebanon and trod down the thistle," and 
Jehoash added that he would be destroyed if he battled 
with Israel. 

l^ow passing over these two instances, the question 

^Judges ix: 5-21. 

==11 Kings xiv: 9. . 



290 IIITIIEE AND TIIITIIEE. 

arises, Whence did fable spring ? The great collections of 
Bidpai, Lokman, ^.^sop and Pba?dru8 were not original 
with those writers ; and Lokman and .Esop probably never 
lived, but are rather impersonations adapted to support 
the authorships — pegs whereon to hang hats — not living 
persons. The question, Whence did fable come? is not 
easily answered. 

Sir George Cornewall Lewis, to whom we are indebted 
for an edition of the "Fables of Babrios," the Greek 
fabulist,^ since translated into English verse by the Rev. 
James Davics, held that fables originated in Greece. But 
this opinion seems controvertible on every side. 

Fable is found at a remote period in Greece. One of 
the earliest poets, Ilesiod (circa 800 B. C), quotes the 
"Nightingale and the Hawk."^ ^Esop is generally sup- 
posed to have lived 619-564 B. C. 

But to make animals converse is not natural to Greece, 
and if not natural to that people, fable can scarcely be 
indigenous to the country. On the other hand we can 
understand it to have been in accord with the people of 
India. That animals should act, reason and talk like men, 
is so contrary to universal experience, that the peculiar 
property of the popular fable can only be accounted for 
by the belief in metempsychosis, or transmigration of 
souls, held by the ancient people of India. 

A comparison of the zEsopean fables with the Sanscrit 

^Babrii FabultB .Esopere, &c., 1846; 2d pt. 1859. Both parts 
translated into English verse by Da vies, 1859. But these spurious 
fables were concocted by Minoides Menas, a Greek, who sold them 
with the manuscript of the genuine apologue to the British Museum! 

- Works and Days. 



291 



collections makes it seem almost indisputable that the 
Greeks originally derived the fable from India; however 
difficult it may now be to point out the particular route by 
which it came. 

Instances have been elaborately dwelt on by writers to 
prove this contention. Take the European story of how 
six men played a trick upon a country fellow who was 
carrying a lamb to market. They agreed to meet him, 
one by one, and insist that it was a dog and not a lamb he 
was carrying. This they did, and the rustic was so dum- 
founded by their successive accusations that he let them 
carry off the lamb. In this form, the fable seems rather 
pointless, but turn to the older Sanscrit version. There 
the victim is a Brahman, carrying a goat for sacrifice. The 
robbers agree to call the goat a dog. jSTow a dog is, to a 
Brahman, an abominable thing. When, therefore, for the 
third time the man is assured he is carrying a dog, he 
throws it down and flies in horror. The Brahman creed 
gives a real point to the story. 

It has often been stated that the "Pantchatantra," con- 
sisting of five books after the manner of the Pentateuch, 
is the earliest collection of the fables of India, known at 
present. Its date is uncertain and, though attributed to 
the fifth century before Christ, was doubtless a collection 
of fables then already popular. The Pantchatantra and 
the Tlitopadesa (''wholesome instruction" or "salutary 
"advice"), or some antecedent form of these collections 
form what are now known as the "Fables of Bidpai," a 
work that has been translated into a great number of lan- 
guages. Two curious stories are told as to how the first 



292 HITHER AND THITHEE. 

translation was made by Barzuyeh, an eminent physician 
at the court of the Persian king Khosru Xushirvan, who 
reigned between A. D. 531 and 579. 

The King of Persia heard that there existed in India 
a book fidl of wisdom, and Barzuyeh was sent to get a 
copy, which he did by surreptitious methods, and only 
claimed as a reward permission to write as a preface an 
account of his own life and opinions. This shows us, says 
Max Miiller, "a soul dissatisfied with traditions and formn- 
^'laries, striving after truth, and finding rest only where 
''many other seekers after truth have found rest before 
''and after him, in a life devoted to alleviating the suffer- 
"ings of mankind." ^ 

The other story is given by Firdausi, in the ''Shah 
"Nameh," according to which the physician read in a book 
that there existed in India, trees or herbs supplying a 
medicine by which the dead coidd be restored to life. He 
was sent by the King to find it, and after a year's inquiries, 
was told what was really indicated were "the ancient 
"books of wisdom preserved in India, Avhicli imparted life 
"to those who were dead in their folly and sins." ^ There- 
upon the physician translated these books, and one of them 
was tliis collection of fables, the Sanscrit version of whicli 
is known as "Kalilah and Dimnah," or the dullard and 
the cunning one. The name is derived from those of two 
jackals who are amongst the principal actors in the intro- 
duction. The "Fables of Bidpai," however, have been so 
much altered in the various transformations they have 

^ Chips from a German Workshop: Vol. IV, p. 152. 
=" Ditto, p. 153. 



293 



undergone, that no dependence can be placed on the strict 
originality of any one of them. Many have been adopted 
into the "Gesta Romanormn," and some eighteen of Lafon- 
taine's fables vasij be traced directly to this source : Laf on- 
taine himself acknowledging his indebtedness to the work. 

Beaumont and Fletcher nsed one of his stories in the 
comedy of "Women Pleased;" and Massinger made the 
same story serve in his play entitled "The Guardian." 

The earliest English version of the fables of Bidpai, has 
been edited by Joseph Jacobs, and republished in London.^ 
This version is "a distinct literary find." This version 
was due to Sir Thomas ISTorth, who published it in 15Y0. 
It was but a translation of an Italian version (1552) by 
Doni ; taken from a Spanish version (1493) ; of a Latin 
version (1270) by John of Capua; who translated his 
edition from a Hebrew version (abont 1250) by Rabbi 
Joel; which was written from the Arabic version (about 
750), entitled "Kalilah-Wa-Dimnah ;" which in its tnrn 
was translated from an old Persian version by Barzuyeh 
(570 A. D) ; that being translated from the Sanscrit 
(abont 300 A. D.). Mr. Jacobs, in his edition, gives a 
genealogical tree showing how the work has passed through 
these several stages, and also earlier ones, in the form of 
"Buddhist Birth-Stories" in Cingalese (now lost), and in 
Pali (abont 250 B. C), also lost. It has been translated, 
it appears, into thirty-eight languages in one hundred and 
twelve different versions, which have passed into one hun- 
dred and eighty editions. 

AVlience these fables come, before Barzuyeh, is there- 

' 1880. 



294 HITHER AND THITHER. 

fore ver}" doubtful. The variations made in the stories 
themselves, according to the conntrv in which they were 
introduced, is undoubted. Professor Taylor Lewis, in a 
magazine article, calls attention to the modifications they 
have received, and says: "Some pious animal, such as a 
"devout jackal, a very virtuous lion, in one place a very 
"pious cat, and in another a very hypocritical one, who 
"makes religion a cloak for lier atrocities, is quite a favorite 
"personification. This recluse character has in the original 
"Pantchatantra or Indian legend quite an ascetic aspect, 
"is very quietistic, eats no flesh ; in other words, shows the 
"predominance of Brahman and Buddhistic ideas. In the 
"Persian (ante-Tslamic) it has more of the Magian look. 
"In the Arabic the pious fox, etc., is an orthodox !Mahom- 
"medan, a Nasek, an extraordinary devotee who is ever 
"attentive to the call of the muezzin, says extra prayers, 
"quotes the Koran and makes extra pilgrimages to Mecca. 
"In the Greek version of Simeon Seth, on the other hand, 
"he becomes a decided monk or hermit; to accommodate 
"him ablutions are turned into penance and sometimes the 
"translator renders Arabic phrases by literal quotations 
"from the Scriptures. Not content with this, Simeon 
"Seth sometimes makes all the animals talk Homcrically 
"and parodies in this Avay entire hexameters from the 
" 'Iliad' or the 'Odyssey.' " 

It has been said that ^Esop never lived. The sugges- 
tion has been that Lokman and ^Esop were both mythical, 
and the fables attributed to them, reallv only well kno"«ni 
stories handed dovoi from age to age, and finally collected, 
and an assumed author's name attached. 



FABLES. 295 

Lokmaii, a celebrated Arabian sage, and great fabulist, 
has been identified with iEsop. Silvestre de Sacy s,ajs 
many pasages of his life were evidently borrowed from the 
legendary story of zEsop, His fables were translated into 
Latin in 1615. Lokman is mentioned in the Koran, and 
is regarded as a contemporary of David and Solomon. 
Others allege him to have been a near relation of Job ; and 
to trace the matter further, suggestions have been made that 
these fables are some of the lost wisdom of Solomon ; but 
that the Solomon in question was no other than Joseph, 
the great patriarch in the time of Pharaoh ; for it is argued, 
^sop, Bidpai and Phsedrus have been alleged to be slaves, 
and to have become the confidential ministers of their kings, 
and was not Joseph sold into Egypt, and did he not become 
the second in Egypt after Pharaoh ? Therefore, Joseph, 
JEsop and the rest, were all one and the same person, 
whereby the fables obtain a "distinctly antique origin." 

One writer amusingly says that the modern incredulity 
in ancient authors is a necessary result of modern historical 
research; and not to be cavilled at, if we will only con- 
sider a parallel possibility in after ages. Who believes, he 
says, in Sam Weller, or in the Clockmaker ? Yet the time 
may come, some ages hence, wdien each of the^e worthies 
will be looked upon as a real personage, who lived in the 
world, and delivered from his ovrn mouth, all the sage 
remarks which go under his name. 

As to the fabulist of greatest renown, iEsop, it is notice- 
able, as far as he is concerned, that whether his fables 
were invented by himself, or as has been suggested by 
Socrates, by Solomon or by Homer, they have never been 



296 HITHER AND THITHER. 

excelled for brevity, point and practical good sense. Some 
of his fables acquire special interest when the use is 
recalled that has been made of them in the stormy and 
difficult period of Grecian history. It is related that the 
citizens of Agrigentum were warned by Stesichorus, who 
flourished about six hundred years B. C, against the 
incroachments of Phalaris, by the recital of the "Horse 
"and the Stag," ^ wherein a horse asks a man to help him 
to punish a stag that has damaged a pasture in which the 
horse ranged. The man mounting liis back puts a bit in his 
mouth, thus instead of giving the horse revenge, making 
him the slave of man. 

Herodotus tells how when the louians,- who had rejected 
a previous invitation of Cyrus to join him, sent ambassa- 
dors to him, after his success, offering him terms, the 
indignant conqueror gave them no other reply than the 
story of the "Fisherman Piping." The fish would not come 
to shore when piped to; but when netted, danced and 
flapped about, whereupon the fisherman smiled and said: 
"Since you would not dance when I piped, I will have 
"none of your dancing noAv." Whence all may learn that 
it is a great art to do the right thing at the right time. 

According to Livy, Menenius Agrippa quelled an insur- 
rection by reciting "The Belly and the Members of the 
"Body."3 

The popularity of ^Esop's "Fables" among the Athen- 
ians was unbounded. Tliey are continually referred to by 

^ Tlie longest fragment of Stesichorus preserved is only six lines in 
length. 

^Book I, chap. 141. 
'Book II, chap. 32. 



297 



tlieir writers. Socrates in prison tnrned tliem into verse, 
Plisednis produced them in Latin iambics, and Babrius 
in Greek choliambics. 

Phsedrns, who flourished about 20 to 30 A. D., was orig- 
inally a slave. He left ninety-seven fables in iambic verse, 
but the subjects and ideas are largely borrowed from ^'Esop. 
Their purity of style has been much praised. 

Babrius was a Greek fabulist, supposed to have lived a 
short time previous to Augustus, whose works were for a 
long time lost. They have, however, come to the knowledge 
of modern scholars in our own time. He is supposed to 
have lived at the close of the second century after Christ. 

Leaving the ancient fabulists one meets with the names 
of Gay, Prior, and others, but they are largely wrongly 
so called. To a great extent they relate admirable stories 
in verse. They are delightful reading, but lack much of 
the pithiness and point which constitute the really essential 
characteristic of fables. 

One fabulist, however, requires more extended notice. 
Jean Lafontaine, who lived 1621-1695, was urged by his 
father to enter the Church, but he found it unsuited to his 
ta^^tes. He was a dull, spiritless youth, and had reached 
twenty-two, before he manifested a spark of poetry. At 
twenty-six he married, to please his father, lived with his 
wife a few years, and had by her one son. He studied the 
best writings of the ancients, was awarded a pension of 
one thousand francs from Fouquet, and after Fouquet's 
fall went into the service of Henrietta, wife of Monsieur, 
the King's brother. Later he lived at Madame Sabliere's 
for twenty years, and drifted through life without any idea 



298 HITHER AND THITHER. 

of money. He was one of tlie bviglitest writers of the age 
of Louis XIV. His fables are nearly inimitable. Long- 
fellow speaks of him as "never misanthro])ical — never out 
"of humour witli his follow-beings." ^ Ho was on inti- 
m.ate terms with Moliere, Boileaii and Racine, and was 
knov/n as "Le Bon Homme," for he was "as simple as the 
"heroes of his own fables." 

The abbess of Paris promised to provide for his son. 
Lafontaine met the son in societ}^ for many years and was 
delighted with his conversation. ^Yhen told, "He is your 
"son," he genially responded, "Ah ! I am yory glad of it." 

Being urged to reconcile himself with his wife, he went 
to her country residence and inquired for her. The door- 
keeper did not know Lafontaine and gave a general answer 
tliat Madame was well. Lafontaine proceeded to a friend's 
house, where he stayed for several days and returned to 
Paris. "When questioned how his mission had succeeded, 
said : "I have been to see her, but I did not find her ; she 
"is well." Lafontaine published the first six books of his 
fables in 1G08, the subjects being mostly taken from JEsop, 
Phaxlrus and Horace. In 1678 a second edition of these 
six books was published, enriched by five books of new 
fables. In IGOi a third edition appeared, containing one 
additional book, completing the collection. 

Among the interesting facts connected with fables, un- 
doubtedly stand the various editions of Gay's "Fables" and 
^<]sop's "Fables," illustrated by the celebrated wood en- 
graver, Tliomas Bewick, the Englisli artist. 

Gay's "Fables" were printed by T. Saint in lYTO, in 
'Poets and Poetry of Europe: Jean de la Fontaine. 



299 



one volume, with seventy-seven cuts of fables with borders, 
and thirty-five vignettes. For the tasteful and clever 
engraving of five of the cuts, one being "The Huntsman 
"and the Hound," the Eoyal Society of Arts presented 
Bewick with their medal. Some of the cuts included in 
the edition of Gay's "Fables," published in 1Y79, were 
thought so much of by "my master Beilby," says Bewick 
in his "Memoir," "that he in my name sent impressions 
"of a few of them to be laid before the Society for the 
"Encouragement of Arts, and I obtained a premium." The 
premium amounted to £Y.Y.O, and he presented the money 
with intense gratification to his mother. 

To understand how fables travel, consider how the story 
of Perrette, the milkmaid, who, while speculating how, 
from the profit to be derived from the sale of a pail of 
milk she was carrying, she would ultimately become 
wealthy, capered for joy, and lost all, has reached its 
present form. The fable is in Lafontaine's seventh book, 
published, therefore, 1678, in the preface to which Lafon- 
taine says, that he owes the largest portion of his fables 
to "Pilpay," the Indian sage. Max Miiller, in his essay, 
"On the Migration of Fables," ^ has selected this fable 
and discusses the matter fully. He quotes tlie version in 
the "Pantchatantra," where the milkmaid and her pail are 
replaced by a Brahman and a pot of rice ; and follows this 
with the version in the "Hitopadesa," where the characters 
are still a Brahman and a pot of rice. In the first of these 
two, the Brahman, musing upon his future, imagines his 
wife will not hear an order that he will issue, and says: 

^ Chips from a German Workshop, Vol. IV. 



300 HITHER AND THITHER. 

''Then I get up and give her such a kick;" and in the 
second he imagines that his wives will quarrel, and says: 
''I shall be in a great rage, and take a stick." Thus were 
the pots of rice broken. 

Max Miiller asks, how did the fable travel to France, and 
how was the Brahman changed to a brisk milkmaid ? 

The next to the "Hitopadesa" version is the Arabic 
"Kalilah and Dimnah." Here the politer religious man 
only chastises his son, which, perhaps is much better than 
beating his wives. In a subsequent Greek text ^ we have 
virtually the same story — a beggar marries, has a son, and 
beating him, loses the honey and butter which gave rise to 
his speculations. Still there is no milkmaid. 

To explain how the fable reached Lafontaine, is to 
repeat how many times "Kalilah and Dimnah" has been 
translated and retranslated. After the conquest of Spain 
by the Mahommedans, Arabic literature found a new home 
in Western Europe, and in 1289 a Spanish translation of 
the fables called "Calila e Dynma" was published, Bidpai 
being changed to Bundobel. This was turned into Latin 
verse in 1313 by Raimond de Beziers, and in the same cen- 
tury into Latin verse by Baldo under the title "^Esopus 
alter." The fal)les in their various forms appear to have 
been exceedingly popular. They were introduced into ser- 
mons, homilies and works on morality, and became so 
changed as they passed from moutli to mouth as to be 
hardly recognizable. In a Latin book called ''Dialogues 
"of Creatures Moralysed," transacted into several modern 
languages, Miiller finds the fable witli^ for the first time, 
the milkmaid. 

^ "Stephanites and Iclmelates." 



IfABIvKS. 301 

One more point may be mentioned. With the rise of a 
spirit of inquiry in the Middle Ages, arose the question 
why certain animals were always depicted with certain 
traits of character, e. g., the wolf, the fox, the cat, the bear, 
and so on, each always betraying the same characteristics, 
under whatever different circumstances. 

A compiler of a French metrical ^ romance gives a 
quaint answer: 

When Adam and Eve were driven out of Paradise the 
Creator in compassion gave the former a wand and told 
him if in want of anything to go to the seashore, strike 
the water and he should find relief. Accordingly, the pair 
went on the sands, and Adam struck the sea with his wand. 
Immediately there appeared a lamb. ''There," said he to 
Eve, "take care of the animal, for as it grows it will give 
"us milk and cheese." Eve's milk, as it was called, was 
much used in the Middle Ages. Eve was envious of Adam's 
success and thought she Avould get a better lamb, so while 
he was not looking, she struck the sea, when out came a 
furious wolf who seized the lamb and carried it off into the 
woods. V/hen Eve saw this she cried in distress, and 
Adam, aroused, took the wand and struck the sea again. 
A dog sprang out, followed the wolf, and rescued the lamb. 
Eve not satisfied, tried her fortune again, and the result 
was the appearance of a fox. Adam and Eve went on 
striking alternately, the father of mankind always drawing 
animals that became domesticated, such as were beneficial 
to society, but Eve always drawing forth some wild and 
noxious animal. Thus it was that the wolf and the fox 

^ Renard. 



302 HITHER AND TIIITIIEE. 

and the other animals which figure in the fables came into 
the world, with the various tempers which have given them 
their celebrity. 

"From the high position which such writers as Lafon- 
taine, Lessing and Gay have given to it we may," says 
a writer in the Cornh'dl Marjazine in 18G0,^ "look back 
"upon its old and long career, as, born imder the warm 
"sky of India, it crept by ways unknown to the classic 
"clime of Greece, passed thence less obscurely to Latium, 
"and wandered onward into the Middle Ages of Europe, 
"there to meet its older })arent from its far distant birth- 
"place ;" and, where with it, it later took mcdiieval "society 
"by surprise" and conquered "a more remarkable position 
"than it had previously held either in the East or in the 
"West." 

^ The Hiatory of a Fable. 



Palestrina s Music. 



Palestrina's Music. 



A COMPLETE copy of the compositions of Pales- 
trina/ in tliirty-tliree folio volumes, lias been pub- 
lished in Germany, and deserves a few words of 
notice. 

Volumes 1 to 7 contain two hundred and twenty- 
five motets, of which some are in twelve parts, proving the 
wonderful mastery of composition to which this great com- 
poser attained. Volumes 8 and 9 contain one hundred and 
thirteen hymns and offertories. Volumes 10 to 24 are de- 
voted to his masses, written in four, five, six and eight 
parts. In the eleventh volume is given the celebrated 
"Missa Papse Marcelli," which has been often referred to 
as one of the greatest works accomplished by this writer. 

The mass known as the "Papse Marcelli" is described by 
Edward PI. Pember as the mass by which "all felt that the 
"future style and destiny of sacred art was once for all 
"determined." In Mr. Pember's article on this great mass,^ 
he says that "Baini likens its transcendent excellence to 
"that of the relative grandeur of the thirty-third canto of 
"the Inferno" ; that "Parvi, contemporary musical copyist 
"at the Vatican, transcribed it into the Chapel collection 

^ Pierluigi da Palestrina's Werke : Breitkopf & Hartel, Leipzig, 
1862, etc. 

^ "Dictionary of Music and Musicians," Vol. II. 

20 



306 HITHER AND THITHER. 

"in characters larger than those which he commonly 
"employed" ; that "the Pope ordered a special performance 
"of it in the Apostolic Chapel, and that, at the close of the 
"service, the enraptured Pontiff declared that it must have 
"been some such nuisic that the A}X)stle of the Apocalypse 
"heard sung by the triumj)hant hosts of angels in the K'ew 
"Jerusalem" — that, "in short, there was a general agree- 
"ment of prelate and singer that Palestrina had, at last, 
"produced the archetype of ecclesiastical song." 

Some have expressed an opinion that certain of the 
remainder of Palestrina's masses are entitled to even more 
praise, than that bestowed on the "Papa) ]\[arcelli ;" but 
it must be noticed that, while the "Papai Marcelli" has 
been frequently performed since the death of its composer, 
the masses claimed to be superior have never been used in 
church or concert hall. 

Por those who are not able to play upon the organ with- 
out the aid of a written organ accompaniment, these recon- 
dite works in four, six, eight, ten and twelve parts, it may 
be good news that there is in popular use a volume of 
selections from Palestrina, published by Xovello, and 
edited by J. M. Capes and V. Novello, in which is included 
the "Papa; Marcelli," with such an organ accompaniment. 
In this same volume are included tln-ee other of his best 
masses as well as some motets. It is to be hoped that, 
before long, the German editions of the complete w^orks of 
Palestrina, Bach, Handel and other great composers will 
be published in some such similar form, for the delectation 
of the hundreds of choirs and organists who would rejoice 
to have in a practical and available form, these masterly 
productions for use in churches. 



PALESTKINA^S MUSIC. 307 

Volumes 25 to 27 contain a series of lamentations, 
litanies, motets, psalms, and four-, five-, six- and eiglit-part 
renderings of tke Magnificat. Volumes 28 and 29 con- 
tain the celebrated madrigals. In volumes 30 to 33 are 
included a variety of this composer's works from both man- 
uscript and printed collections in the archives of the Pon- 
tifical Chapel, the Vatican Library and other places. 

The life of Palestrina was by no means unclouded. 
The music used for the mass, in his day had reached almost 
to the point of a scandal. The Pope resolved to "reform 
"the music of the church or to banish it." Fortunately 
for his contemporaries and those who lived after his age, 
Palestrina was directed to compose a mass which would 
conform to a pure orthodox standard. The above-men- 
tioned mass of Pope Marcellus, published in 1665, was the 
result of this commission, and it is pleasant to remember 
that it was received with great admiration. It is still 
greater pleasure to know that the composer's superiors, on 
hearing of this successful work, decided to retain grand 
music in the church and to abolish the operatic frippery 
which had led to so serious a crisis. 

In 1585 Palestrina wrote a motet and a mass in such a 

hurry that neither proved worthy of any remembrance. 

As Mr. Pember remarks,^ "These regrettable productions 

"would have been well lost to^ sight but for the reckless bru- 

"tality of Igino,^ who, looking only to what money 

"they would fetch, published them after his father's death, 

"with a bold-faced inscription to Clement VIII." These 

^ "Dictionaiy of Music and Musicians," Vol. II. 
^ Igino was tlie only one of Palestrina's sons who survived him. 



308 HITHER AND THITHER. 

luifortimate compositions, however, were more than atoned 
for by the great mass of "Assiimpta est Maria in 
"Coelum," which confirmed Palestrina's work as a com- 
poser, and was very greatly esteemed by the Pope. Fortu- 
nately, a copy of this has been edited for the use of the 
English ''Bach Choir," by W. S. Rockstro, and is pub- 
lished by I^ovello, to the great satisfaction of musicians 
and lovers of real church music. 



Alexandre Dumas. 



Alexandre Dumas. 



THE voluminous author, Alexandre Dumas, once 
boasted that he was the author of one thousand 
volumes and sixty dramas. How he turned out 
the amazing quantity of manuscript puhlished in his name 
is one of the unsolved enigmas of literary life. He 
traveled widely and leisurely, ran a theatre of his own, and 
lived luxuriously, keeping almost open house. Any one 
of these amusements, let alone all three, meant a serious 
expenditure of time, yet he found opportunity to write 
more pages of travels, dramas, feuilletons and historical 
romances than any other writer has ever been known to 
accomplish. In the zenith of his fame he is reported, in 
consideration of a large retaining fee, to have bound him- 
self not to publish more than thirty-five volumes in any 
one year. The mere notion of writing, and still worse, of 
contracting to write, a three-volume novel every month 
would have appalled any other author, but to bind himself 
not to exceed that quantity forms a unique record. 

At one period he had six novels in course of piecemeal 
publication, and the publishers prudently refused, in their 



312 HITHEE AND THITHEE. 

own interests, to accept any manuscript not in his own 
handwriting. One awestruck thinker on this problem has 
asked, not iTnwisely, how any one mortal's pen could 
traverse these regions of space; the reams, not realms, of 
fancy and invention, which bear the signature of Alexandre 
Dumas. The methods of various authors, in the fine 
frenzy of literary composition have been a subject of dis- 
cussion in many a circle. Miss Charlotte M. Yonge, who 
produced over one hundred works, wrote daily for about 
five hours. Anthony Trollope wrote with an open watch in 
front of him for a fixed daily period, constraining himself 
to turn out a certain number of lines each quarter of an 
hour. Lord Beaconsfield wrote as the humor seized him, 
with a Berserker rage, dashing off quire after quire of his 
political novels, and working tirelessly till the task in hand 
was accomplished, Southey was said never to be seen 
without a quill-pen in his hand. Albert Barnes, the Phil- 
adelphia jDastor, ceased writing every morning at 9 o'clock, 
yet, by working from 5 till 9, he completed in a few 
years sixteen volumes of a "commentary" of which a 
quarter of a million volumes were sold, Peter Bayle, the 
author of the great five-volume folio dictionary which bears 
his name, told his biographer, Des Maizeaux, that from 
twenty to forty he worked fourteen hours a day and in 
fact, never knew what leisure was. Pliuy, the elder, was 
always jotting do^\Ti his notes, till at his death his note- 
books numbered one hundred and sixty volumes, closely 
written on both sides, in which achievement he was almost 
paralleled by the antiquary, Thomas Hearne, who left 
behind him one hundred and forty-five small octavo vol- 



ALEXANDRE DUMAS. 313 

limes of notes, he having made it a rule of life always to 
have a note-book in his pocket in which to jot down 
"what he thought, what he read, Mdiat he saw him- 
"self, or what he was told by others." Sir Walter Scott, 
besides poems, essays, reviews and histories, wrote twenty- 
five novels in twenty-five years, and Samuel Warren wrote 
a novel of five hundred pages in one-and-twenty days. 
Joseph Beaumont, a Royalist fellow ejected from Cam- 
bridge in 1644, retired to his old home at Hadleigh, and in 
eleven months composed a poem on a religious subject, 
consisting of forty thousand lines, ^ thus achieving the 
longest poem in the English language; and Lope de Vega, 
"a personification of celerity," left, as alleged, twenty-one 
million three hundred thousand verses in print, including 
over two thousand original dramas. 

Other writers have been as slow as many of these were 
rapid. Of Thomas Gray, the j)oet. Lord Beacon sfleld 
remarked that no other man had gone to his grave leaving 
so great a name behind him, but carrying so small a 
volume under his arm. Lord Bacon did not produce his 
magnum opus till he was sixty years of age, and he revised 
the work twelve times before he would let it see light. 
Jane Austen kept her manuscripts in hand till time and 
many perusals satisfied her that the charm of recent com- 
position was dissolved, and then, and then only, would she 
let them go to a publisher. Edmund Burke printed off 
each of his principal works at a private press twice before 
he submitted them to a publisher, and Saint-Pierre revised 
his "Paul and Virginia" nine times before he gave it to 
the world. Beranger never exceeded fifteen songs in a 

* Psyche, or Love's Mystery, 1648. It contains 38,922 lines. 



314 HITHER AND THITHEK. 

year, Goldsmith tlioiiglit ten lines a clay good progress 
when writing the "Deserted Village," and George Eliot, 
week in and week out at times, only accomplished a page 
a day, till by j)olishing and alterations she deemed some 
favorite character, or important scene properly described. 
What wonder, then, that Alexandre Dumas was charged 
with accepting the work of other writers and palming it off 
as his own. The charge has been frequently made, notably 
by Eugene de Mirecourt in his "Fabrique de Romans par 
"A. Dumas et CompagTiie,"^ as well as by M. Querard,^ 
who has gone through "the one thousand volumes and sixty 
"dramas" and made regular lists of how much came from 
the pen of Dumas himself and how much was furnished by 
industrious collaborateurs. According to Mr. Percy Fitz- 
gerald, in his "Life and Adventures of Dumas," his 
assistants, in particular Messieurs Maquet and Bourgeois, 
are entitled to somewhere about seventy-five to eighty per 
cent, of the credit earned by Dumas, and the author him- 
self to some small proportion only of the remaining twenty 
or twenty-five per cent. How it was that his collaborateui*s 
maintained a dignified silence, and allowed Dumas to run 
away with the unbounded praise bestowed upon the books, 
as well as, apparently, with the enormous pecuniary profits 
arising from this literary manufactory, does not apjjear. 
Some of these assistant writers have published books in 
their own names, which fell as flat as ditch-water. If 
we are to believe the envious pens of Dumas' censorious 

' Fabrique de Romans Maison Alexandre Dumas & Cie. Eugene 
de Mirecourt. Paris, 1845. 

^ Les supereheries littfraires devoil6es (2d ed. Paris, 1870). 



ALEXANDRE DIJMAS. 315 

critics, when thej worked for him they produced books 
which found thousands of interested readers, though when 
they wrote for themselves they were unable to produce a 
romance worth the trouble of reading. It is universally 
admitted that Dumas lived most extravagantly and spent 
money like water, so that either the Maquets and others 
are creatures of fancy, or Dumas was served with a reticent 
faithfulness never before nor since imagined. It was 
humorously said that if Dumas were admitted to the 
French Academy, so alarming were the numbers of heads 
and hands employed in his factory, that he would have 
required a whole bench and not a seat only, in that august 
assembly. In rapidity of production and quantity of 
"copy" he exceede:d all competitors and obtained better 
returns for his publishers than any two or three of 
his comparatively voluminous rivals combined. Tor one 
person who goes in for a course of G. P. R. James, Mrs. 
Gore, Charles Lever, and so on, probably fifty read "The 
"Coimt of Monte Cristo," "The Three Musketeers," "The 
"Queen's ISTecklace" and other novels, justly included as 
component parts of the "cream" of Dumas' writings. 

It is remarkable that he was nearly forty before he dis- 
covered the vein of talent which made his reputation and 
his fortune, the first of which will doubtless stick to his 
name, the latter of which he hopelessly failed to retain. 

He was twenty-five years of age when, in 1828, he pro- 
duced his first successful drama and for fifteen years he 
was very industrious as a playwright. It is not kno^vn to 
everyone, that the whole English-speaking world owes to 
Dumas the great debt of a "logical" conclusion to 



316 HITIIEK AND THITHEK. 

Shakespeare's "Hamlet." Notwithstanding that Dumas' 
compatriot, Eugene Sue, has exquisitely apostrophized 
the immortal bard as "The Great William," others 
of his nationality have ridiculed "Hamlet" in no meas- 
ured terms. When Dumas considered the matter, all 
became clear in a moment. Shakespeare's method was at 
fault, argal if Dumas provided a "logical" ending all 
would be well and the play would be worthy of representa- 
tion at his own private theatre. To conceive the comedy 
was an inspiration ; to carry it out the work of a few hours 
only. 

Shakespeare represented Hamlet's "native hue of resolu- 
"tion so sicklied o'er v/itli the pale cast of thought" that, 
while hesitating to punish the guilty king, he destroys 
Polonius, Ophelia, Guildenstern, Eosencrantz, Laertes and 
the Queen before he rids the world of the King and him- 
self. Dumas saw that this was wrong, and provided a 
"conclusion," in which the ghost takes an active part. That 
perturbed spirit having failed to duly stir up the Prince 
for four acts, and feeling, presumably, that there is a time 
for all things, is at last himself invoked to come and 
straighten things out. Although the Ghost might just as 
well have acted in Act I, as in Act Y, still when he does 
bestir himself, he bestirs himself effectively. When re- 
quested to come and see the murderers die he opens his 
budget of advice. First he advises Laertes to "pray 
"and die," which the latter forthwith does. Turning to 
the Queen the Ghost proceeds to tell "tlie poor lady" 
tliat love has been her fault, but that though a woman 
on earth, she shall be a queen in Heaven; then, when 



ALEXANDRE DUMAS. 317 

lie begs heir to ''hope and die" the Queen turns over 
and expires. The King fares the worst of all, for the 
angry shade tells him he shall be a companion of Satan 
and his woes forever, desiring him to "despair and die," 
wherenpon the King, prudently saying nothing, goes to 
another world. Hamlet then asks as to his own fate, and 
the Ghost ''logically" and obligingly replies that he "shall 
"live!" 

This "adaptation" and many dramas founded on his own 
novels were the staple productions of his Theatre His- 
torique, nor till he was forty years of age did Dumas 
hit on that vein of fiction which produced for him his 
greatest reputation and reward. From the very start the 
stream of luck he struck as a writer of historical 
romances, had the force of a torrent. In 1844 he com- 
menced an almost interminable and inexhaustible series of 
novels. In one and the same year were produced his 
"The Count of Monte Cristo" and "The Three Muske- 
"teers." The habit of writing for the stage had given him 
a surprising facility of composition. Most writers find 
that nothing is so fatal to literary success as to make a 
story long, but Dumas acted in the direct teeth of any 
such rule, and once he had started a story, could go on, like 
Scheherezade, for one thousand and one chapters, and 
then start afresh with the same characters, keeping up an 
endless variety of adventures, scenes and perpetual con- 
versation, 3^et all the while carrying his readers breath- 
lessly along with his story, so that at the end, when the end 
did come, the only feeling of regret was, that there were no 
more volumes to be read. This was peculiarly the case in 



318 HITHER AND THITHER. 

his D'Artagiian series. What other four characters of 
fiction can be compared with D'Artagnan, the typical 
adventurer of fiction and penniless gentleman of Gascony, 
who lives through novel after novel in company with that 
inimitable trio of heroes, Athos, Porthos and Aram is, 
whose plots, counterplots and escapades in company with 
their four lackeys are so impossible, but so amusing, and 
told, moreover, with such verisimilitude that one is 
inclined to believe it all ti*ue history not elsewhere 
recorded. We grow to wonder whether, after all, these 
wonderful men did not really almost save Charles I., from 
execution, did not really cany off General Monk in a trunk 
and if they were not able, as they told the Cardinal, "to 
"overturn all France, and even all Europe, if they 
"chose."^ 

Their early adventures are full of the wonderful force 
of four young heroes at twenty years of age, so that when 
the first series of events was closed it was no wonder that 
Dumas could not prevail on himself to let them fade into 
oblivion. But it was bold and a remarkable piece of 
literary courage to take up the thread "Twenty Years 
"After," in a second novel as long as the first; and show 
the heroes at forty, as full of energy and pluck as when but 
twenty years of age. The heroes, however, having been 
long separated, are found to have deep individual interests, 
so that the four plot and countei-plot between themselves. 



^ In reality Dumas availed liiiiiself freely of the "Memoirs of 
Monsieur D'Artagnan" (died 1G73), wrillen by Courtilz de San- 
dras in 1700; a translation of wliieh, by Ralph Nevill, was published 
by H. S. Nichols, London, 1808. 



ALEXANDRE DUMAS. 319 

yet "Ten Years Later," in a mighty history filling six 
octavo volumes, we find the same heroes now verging on 
sixty, involved in a series of chances and events told natur- 
ally and full of entertainment. In this novel, the main 
title of which is "The Vicomte de Bragelonne," we find 
ourselves in the society of Louis XIV., Louise de la Val- 
liere, Madame de Montespan, Fouquet and Colbert, and 
were it not that Dumas buries the four lackeys and three 
of the four heroes, there seems no reason why yet another 
ten volumes should not have been devoted to accounts of 
their lives and sayings. We sigh as we near the end. 
Athos dies from a broken heart on receiving the news of 
the death of his son; Porthos perishes in attempting a 
task worthy of Samson, while D'Artagnan is dismissed by 
a bullet, just as he had been presented with the baton of a 
Marshal of France. Poetical justice is meted out by 
Dumas in leaving Aramis, the "wily intriguer, senti- 
"mentalist and false priest," to live and repent if he will. 
Well did Thackeray write of these wonders of fiction : 
"I have read about them from sunrise to sunset with the 
"utmost contentment of mind. They have passed through 
"many volumes — forty ? — fifty ? I wish, for my part, 
"there were a hundred more. I would never tire of them 
"or their bravery in rescuing prisoners, punishing ruffians 
"and running scoundrels through the midriff with graceful 
"rapiers." What a trio were Athos, Porthos and Aramis, 
and what a hero was D'Artagnan ! A list of the historical 
characters introduced into these forty volumes would fill a 
volume. May everyone who has not read the D'Artagnan 
series, the Marie Antoinette romances and, best of all. 



320 IlITHEK AND TIIITIIER. 

"The Count of Monte Cristo," take a niontli's holiday and 
prepare himself for an enjoyment and harmless pleasure 
not easily surpassed. 



ii 



Of the Imitation of Christ. ' ' 

Who Wrote It? 



"Of the Imitation of Ciirist" 



WHO WROTE IT 5 



DID not inexorable facts contradict us, it would seem 
that there could be no doubt, as to who were the 
actual authors of the best-known works that are 
in everybody's hands. We do not speak here of the Bible, 
and the disputed questions, whether Moses wrote all or 
any parts of the Pentateuch ; whether St. Paul, Apollos, or 
some other person wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews. IsTor 
need we seek to answer the query whether or not the half- 
educated tinker, John Bunyan, was the true author of 
"The Pilgrim's Progress," thereby gaining an imperish- 
able fame. ISTo difficulty exists in determining who is the 
author of Vortigern, but who shall answer beyond dispute 
the conundrum. Who was the writer of the Poems of 
Ossian ? The wild theories that Shakespeare did not write 
his immortal plays ; that Homer never lived, or if he did, 
was merely a collector of disjointed popular poems, which 
he welded together and called his o^vn; that Gray's 
"Elegy" is merely a beautiful mosaic of other poets' 
thoughts; and so on; are familiar to every suiferer 
under the "critical" views of the very learned of the 



324 HITHER AND THITHER. 

last and present centuries. To some extent, the very 
fact of their authorship not being known, has kept cer- 
tain books "a necessity in every gentleman's library." 
This is notably the case in the instance of the "Let- 
"ters of Junius." The letters would hardly be remem- 
bered to-day but for the burning question, "Who Avrote 
"them ?" Perhaps, however, the strangest page of literary 
history relates to the great work of the "Imitation of 
"Christ." "The Imitation" is one of the half-dozen books 
of which the greatest number of copies have been 
sold ; and probably, next to the Bible, more copies of it 
have been printed than of any other book ever written. It 
has been translated into every modem language, and cir- 
culated in every part of the kno\vn world ; and yet for two 
hundred years the fiercest of debates has been waged as to 
who wrote it. No more furious literary war has been 
fought ; not only in volumes containing hundreds of pages, 
but in multitudinous pamphlets of all sorts and sizes, con- 
taining answers, rejoinders and sur-re joinders; than over 
the dispute as to whether Thomas A'Kempis was the author 
of this, the most remarkable religious work yet penned. 
This warfare would never have reached its actual propor- 
tions, had it not happened, that the glory of the authorship 
was claimed by two of the most important religious orders, 
namely, those of St. Augustine and St. Benedict. To have 
had a predecessor in the order capable of writing such a 
treatise would add real glory to the society; hence the 
earnestness of the dispute that is still revived about every 
twenty years, but to which it seems as if no absolute solu- 
tion could be found. 



OF THE IMITATION" OF CHEIST. 325 

Thomas A'Kempis was born in the year 1380, of parents 
named Hamercken, at a village called Kempen, in the 
Diocese of Cologne/ not far from Zwoll, and became an 
Augustine monk in the monastery of Mount Saint Agnes 
in 1399, when, according to the custom of the times, he 
became known as Thomas A'Kempis, after the name of his 
birthplace. He became a priest in 1413, and is believed 
to have written "The Imitation" a year later, in 1414. He 
lived a very retired, studious life; was made sub-prior of 
the monastery in 1425, and lived to the good old age of 
ninety-one, dying in the year 14Y1. Much of the time of 
the monks of Saint Agnes was spent in copying manu- 
scripts, and Thomas was an industrious and voluminous 
copyist. Three manuscripts in his own handwriting are 
in existence. Two of these, dated 1441 and 1456, are in 
the Royal Library at Brussels, and a third, unsigned and 
undated, but supposed to have been written in 1417, is at 
Louvain. The manuscript of 1441 contains thirteen 
treatises, tlie first four of which are what we know as "The 
"Imitation," though in a different order from the usual 
one, as the fourth precedes the third. The remaining nine 
treatises are of similar character to "The Imitation." The 
manuscript is partly parchment and partly paper. ^ JSTow, 
as Mr. Leonard A. Wheatley^ has pertinently remarked, it 
is highly improbable that a mere scribe would think of in- 
serting his own works after one borrowed from another 
source, especially a man of the knowa modesty of St, 

^ The manuscript of 1456 contains thirteen sermons and meditations. 
The Louvain manuscript contains thirty sermons to Novices and the 
life of St. Lydewig. 

^ The Story of the "Imitatio Christi." 



326 IIITIIEE AND THITHEE. 

Thomas. For nearly two centuries A'Kempis was held by 
both the literary and religious world to be tlie undisputed 
author, and sixteen contemporary witnesses can be quoted 
as vouching that he was "the author of the 'De Imita- 
" 'tione !' " that "the Brother who composed it is called 
"Thomas," and so on; while a translator of "The Imita- 
"tion," twenty-one years after Thomas' death, categorically 
attributes the authorship to him. 

In 1G04 one Don Pedro Manriquez, in a work on the 
preparation for the Administration of Penance, observed 
that in some "Conciones" of Eonaventura were long pas- 
sages repeated verbatim in the "Imitation." As Buena- 
ventura died in 1273, rather more than one hundred years 
before the birth of A'Kempis, this allegation created a 
great stir; but inasmuch as it was proved, within a year, 
that the "Conciones" were not by Eonaventura at all, but 
were written nearly two centuries later than alleged, the 
subject was dismissed from discussion, although only for 
a very short period. In 1605 a Jesuit Father found in 
the library of the convent at Arona, near Milan, an old, 
undated copy of the treatise, with a title to this effect: 
"Here begin the chapters of the first book by the Abbot 
"John Gersen" on the "Imitation of Christ," with a colo- 
phon at the end expressing, "Here ends the fourth and last 
"book of the Abbot John Gersen." This manuscript 
almost immediately fell into the hands of an antiquary, 
Constantino Cajetan, who, according to Dean Hook, in his 
ecclesiastical biography, "is chiefly celebrated for the 
"almost insane devotion which he evinced toward the 
"Benedictine Order." He rushed into print, and issued 



OF THE IMITATION OF CHEIST. 32Y 

it from the Roman press as the work of the venerable man 
John Gersen, Abbot of the Order of St. Benedict on the 
"Imitation." But for the title "venerable" and the words 
"Order of St. Benedict," not a word of authority existed in 
the manuscript, so that these words were suppressed in a 
second edition, published in 1618 ; and on the authority of 
an old copy printed in Venice in 1501, the title-page stated 
tliat this book "was not ^vritten by John Gersen, but by 
"John, Abbot of Vercelli." A little later the same 
antiquary found that John of Vercelli was surnamed de 
CanabacO', upon which an edition was put forth at Augs- 
burg, in 1624, with the "complete title," "Four books on 
"the Imitation of Christ by the great and venerable ser- 
"vant of God, John Gersen, of Canabaco, of the Order of 
"St. Benedict, Abbot of Vercelli, in Italy." 

Apart from variations in the spelling of Gersen's 
name, it further turned out that no Abbot of Vercelli, of 
the name of Gersen, nor any other, could be shown to 
have existed, who would represent the candidate supported 
by Cajetan. It was then claimed that the true author was 
Chancellor Gerson, who lived 1363-1429, but, as the 
French critic, Eenan. says, "the opjnion which attributes 
"the book to Gerson is not at all to be sustained,"^ and one 
strong point is that it is not in the list, of the writings of 
the Chancellor, drawn up by his own brother. Many pas- 
sages, moreover, in "The Imitation" could be quoted show- 
ing that the writer was a monk ; while Chancellor Gerson 
was not one, nor did he even live in a community of reli- 
gious men. In 1638 Cajetan, however, obtained permis- 
sion from the Congregation of the Index to print the "De 

* Etudes d'Histoire Religieuse. 



328 HITHER AND THITHER. 

''Imitatione" in the name of Gersen, and thereby, as he 
claimed, established the claim of the Benedictines that a 
member of their order was the author. 

A little later a new trouble arose, for it was announced 
that Cardinal Richelieu was about to bring out a magnifi- 
cent copy of the treatise, and then raged the question, to 
which of the contending parties would the Cardinal lend 
his aid. Pressure was brought to bear from both sides, 
experts were consulted, manuscripts examined, reports 
made, and endless discussions had, but the Cardinal, 
with a deal of prudence, brought it out without any name 
at all,^ and so probably offended both parties, but aided 
neither. Thereupon, from that time to 1652, a general con- 
troversy ensued between the two orders. Finally appeals 
were made to the Parliament, when the Augustinians 
proving temporarily victorious, were authorized to pub- 
lish the work under the name of Thomas A'Kemj)is.^ 

Altogether, some twenty-two persons have been named 
as the true author, but the claims of none beyond those of 
A'lvempis and Gersen merit serious discussion. As 
recently as 1881 one Walton Hilton, a Carthusian monk, 
was put forward in Notes and Queries, but his claim will 
not stand close investigation. The claim of A'lvempis 
seems to have resisted all attacks, and we may fairly con- 
clude, that to him does the world owe this helpful book. 
One writer collected together a long list of testimonies to 
the value of "The Imitation," wherein it was curious to 
notice Catholics, Wesleyans, Presbyterians, divines, phil- 

» 1640. 
^ 1652. 



OF THE IMITATION OF CHEIST. 329 

osophers, kings, soldiers and the tlioughtful of all sects, 
unanimously bearing witness to its value, and to how they 
had been helped by it. It was a sound remark, that it is 
perhaps well that the book should remain anonymous, for, 
owing to that very reason, the treatise lives, tinged with 
the thought of no one man or school, but remains a goodly 
heritage belonging to all, valued by all, and the source of 
delight apart from sect or party. 

Among the innumerable editions of this work, one pub- 
lished in Paris, in two volumes, deserves special descrip- 
tion. It is printed from the text of the edition of Michel 
de Marillac, dated 1626, Each page has a border copied 
from some ancient manuscript, the fac-similes and engrav- 
ings being collected from upwards of three hundred and 
sixty manuscripts executed between the sixth and the 
seventeenth centuries. They are admirably executed in 
chromo-lithography by Le Mercier. Five whole-page 
chromo-lithographs serve as frontispieces to the entire 
work, and to each of the four books into which the treatise 
is divided. They are Louis XIV., at prayers; Anne of 
Brittany praying, accompanied by her ladies of honor ; the 
education of the Blessed Virgin Mary ; the Annunciation ; 
and the ISTativity. These last four, as well as the borders 
to the twelve pages of preface, are copied from the cele- 
brated Book of the Hours of Anne of Brittany, a work 
of tlie sixteenth century. The twelve borders are illumina- 
tions from the calendar, one for each month of the year, 
showing the labors of husbandmen in the various seasons ; 
the May-pole dance in May, maidens crushing the grapes 
with the feet for September, and shepherds feeding and 



330 HITHER AND THITHER. 

killing the smne for November and December. In one 
bcantifiil border, from a manuscript of the Koran, written 
in 1422 by Mohammed the son of Iladgi Hassan, is 
^vritten in a scroll at the foot of the page in Arabic, 
"Touch not these pages unless witli pure hands." Many 
of the examples copied are resplendent with the quaint 
ideas of the retired and rather eccentric artists of medi- 
aeval monasteries. In one, taken from a "little book of 
"poetical compositions in honor of the Virgin, collected 
"by Jacques Lelieur," preserved in the public library of 
Rouen, are displayed figures of the Virgin feeding the 
Infant Christ with a bowl-spoon as long as the body of 
the Holy Child, while on the opposite page are angels, 
one of whom is flying upward with a deceased person in a 
basket fastened to his shoulders, reminiscent of the pictures 
of an Indian mother witli her papoose. Above him, on two 
banks of clouds, one far above the other, are two angels, 
one on each cloud bank, engaged in hoisting human beings 
in a basket, by means of a roped crane, up to the Father, 
who is drawn at the top of the border in a center of gloiw. 

One librarian, whose name is fortunately not recorded, 
desecrated a splendid manuscript, now preserved in the 
Louvre and here reproduced, of the "Hours of the Cross," 
dated 1493, belonging to Charles VIII. and Louis XII. 
of France, by impressing his library stamp, "Bibliotheca? 
"Regiffi," across the middle of its exquisitely illuminated 
title-page. 

The borders, of the index of manuscripts and printed 
books reproduced or cited in this charming work, contain 
the figures of the "Dances of Death," attributed to Jollat, 



OF THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. 331 

Beham and Holbein; and the wliole is iisefnlly supple- 
mented with biographical and bibliogi-aphical accounts, 
accompanied by portraits of John Gersen, the Chancellor 
Gerson, St. Thomas A'Kempis and Michael de Marillac, 
and an elaborate history of the "Ornamentation of Manu- 
"scripts," tlie lattea- sumptiionsly embellished with a large 
number of handsome capital letters collected from the 
manuscripts put under contribution in this interesting 
edition of "The Imitation of Christ." 



History Repeats Itself. 



History Repeats Itself. 



AS long since as 1719 a tribe of the Cabyles (or 
Kabyles) in the neighborhood of Morocco and 
Algiers were giving precisely the same trouble to 
civilized nations that they gave in the year 1904: in the 
case of Messrs. Perdicaris and Varley. In October, 1719, 
the Comtesse de Bourke was proceeding from Cette to Bar- 
celona with her whole family, excepting her youngest son, 
to join the Comte de Bourke, then recently appointed 
Ambassador Extraordinary to the Court of Sweden. She 
proposed to join him at Madrid, but on October 25th the 
vessel in which she was sailing was captured by Algerian 
corsairs, and was being towed to Algiers when it became 
separated from the capturing vessel during a desperate 
storm and was wrecked. The Comtesse and her son, with 
several of her servants, were drowned, but the daughter, 
Mile, de Bourke, an old Abbe and a man servant were 
made prisoners by some Moors, who finally carried them 
into the mountains as slaves. Three letters which Mile, 
de Bourke wrote miscarried, but fortunately, a fourth letter 
reached the French Consul, and steps were immediately 
taken to procure the release of the unfortunate captives. 



336 HITHER AND THITHER. 

The Grand Marabout or Priest was made the intermediary 
with the Governor of the Mountains and other chiefs, who 
had carried off these subjects of France. Negotiations were 
tedious, especially as the Moors were willing to release all 
excepting Mile, de Bourke, then little over ten years of age. 
They insisted on retaining her that she might be made the 
bride of the son of "the King of the Mountains," whose rank 
was in their eyes equal to that of anyone in France. Ulti- 
mately, however, they were all released in consideration of 
the payment of a sum of nine hundred piastres. In con- 
cluding this bargain the mountaineers declared that their 
consent was due to the veneration they entertained for their 
Marabouts, and "did not originate from any fear of the Dey 
"of Algiers." The story of the shipwreck of the Comtesse 
de Bourke is related in full in the "Mariner's Chronicle," 
and also in a book published in Paris in 1721, by Father 
Frangois Comelin and others. A translation of the his- 
tory of this particular shipwreck, as related in this French 
book, is to be found in the Catholic World for July, 1881. 
The whole matter has also been worked up into an excel- 
lently told story, entitled "A Modern Telemachus," 
written by Miss Charlotte M. Yonge, and published in 
1886. 

It was undoubtedly strange to read in 1904 of the same 
people, the Cabyles (who are apparently renegade Arabs 
and Moors, mixing with neither of those peoples), being 
engaged in almost precisely the same tricks; and to find 
that the civilized nations have again, more by mediation 
veiy carefully pursued than by any other means available, 
been able to rescue persons carried into captivity by these 
independent mountain tribes. 



A Plea for Free Libraries. 



A Plea for Free Libraries. 



FEEE libraries at tlie present day are important 
factors in the system of public education. The true 
position of free libraries can be stated in a very 
few lines. The case of the city of Philadelphia is a 
proof that they are not luxuries, but educational necessities. 
The city is expending nearly six millions of dollars 
annually for the maintenance of public schools of 
various grades. More school buildings are required every 
year, new sites have to be purchased and buildings erected 
in large numbers, and yet the accommodations for the 
children are not sufficient. What is the purport and end 
of this education ? To teach the youth of the city that 
reading is as important for the mind as food is neces- 
sary for the body. That if insufficient food is taken, their 
bodies will be stunted and injured; that if insufficient 
education (another word for reading) is assimilated, their 
chances of achieving honorable positions in business or in 
professional careers will be seriously hindered. What 
can be said of a proposition such as this: "We, the city 
"authorities, not only recommend boys and girls to come 
"to school, but, in the interests of the community, we com- 



340 HITHER AND THITHER. 

"pel them so to do ; and to prove the sincerity of our belief 
"we are spending millions a year with the main object 
"of teaching them the advantages of reading. We train 
"them up to desire books and all that books mean, and 
"then, when they are sixteen years of age, take them ruth- 
"lessly to the school door, thrust them outside the school 
"buildings and tell them 'we have created in you a desire 
" 'for knowledge, we have shown you the advantages of 
" 'learning, we have shown you how it Avill help you to 
" 'make good progress in life, and there we leave you. Go 
" 'into the world and do tlie best you can !' " 

Some fifty or sixty years ago it occurred to the great 
municipalities of the United States that it was a public 
duty to afford to their citizens the opportunity of carrying 
on their education, notwithstanding that their school days 
w^ere ended, by the aid of free libraries. What number 
of the million and a half of the inhabitants of Phila- 
delphia go to college? Probably considerably less than 
two per cent. How are the remainder to obtain infor- 
mation on the thousand ajid one questions which de- 
mand solution in business ; or progi-ess in life, unless 
access to books is granted, the desire and need for 
which has been created by the city's rulers ? It may not 
be amiss to call to mind that the greater part of a person's 
education is not what is learnt and acquired during a 
period of school life, but that which is accumulated gradu- 
ally, year by year, as the result of having been trained to 
desire an increase of knowledge. The pi-incipal charac- 
teristic of many of the greatest men of the world has 
been that, whilst their education in school lias been slight. 



A PLEA FOE FREE LIBRAEIES. 341 

tlieir natural inclination to learn kas been strong and culti- 
vated. Thousands of the foremost of the leaders of the 
world have been almost self-taught. This is true with the 
leaders in literature, law, religion and many another path 
of life. 

It is with pride, therefore, that Philadelphia points to its 
widespread institution "The Free Library." The system 
now consists of the Library itself on Chestnut street; 
fifteen active branches, scattered up and down through 
the city, and over one hundred depositories of books, kno^vn 
as "Travelling Libraries," on account of their being 
changed every few months. It possesses one of the largest 
collections of embossed books for the blind owned by any 
public library, and it has collections of rare books, gradu- 
ally accumulated or presented by liberal donors, some of 
them so rare that copies of the volumes are not to be found 
even in the British Museum. The patronage of the Library 
and its branches has been phenomenal. The Library itself 
was opened to the public in March, 1894, in two small 
rooms in the City Hall, with a nucleus of about fifteen 
hundred volumes. By the end of 1895 six splendid 
branches, which had been opened under the careful man- 
agement of the Board of Education, were handed over to 
the Free Library. Branch after branch has since been 
added, and owing to the munificent gift of Mr. Carnegie 
of a million and a half dollars, the number of branches will 
soon considerably exceed the number of thirty. Mr. 
P. A. B. Widener has presented one branch, Mr. John 
Wanamal^er has just completed another, and the example 
set by these citizens is likely to be followed by others. To 



342 IIITHER AND TIIITHEE. 

round out the work of the city, wliich is very widely scat- 
tered, the system will be none too big when it consists of a 
large, handsome, well-ordered main library, with at least 
forty branches, and some two hundred travelling li]3rarics. 
Nor need tliis prospect be considered far off from accom- 
plishment. In ten years the Library has assumed the pro- 
portions above described, and instead of fifteen hundred, 
it o^viis at the present time, over two himdred and sixty- 
six thousand volumes. 

The Free Library possesses a very large collection of 
books on Greek and Roman architecture. This was 
gathered together after a careful study of the catalogue of 
the splendid Avery architectural library presented to 
Columbia University by Samuel P. Avery in memory of 
his son. The death of Mr. Avery, in August, 1904, was a 
great loss to booklovers. It has also a rapidly increasing, 
but very complete, collection of photographic fac-similes of 
many of tJic most imjwrtant manuscripts in the world, in- 
cluding the principal codices of the Bible ; the earliest 
manuscripts of the classic writers, sudi as Plautus and 
Tacitus ; the quartos and folios of Shakespeare, and many 
another supreme artist in literature. 

One gi-eat feature which is being rapidly developed in 
the library field of Philadelphia is the scheme of lectures 
for the ]>urpose of bringing the knowledge of books home 
to the people. Not only are courses of six lectures each 
delivered in various parts of the city by experts in the 
lecture field, but, following the example of the University 
Extension methods, a s^^stem of "School Extension Lec- 
"tures" for the yoimg, peculiar to the Free Library of 
Philadelphia, has been carried on in various branches. 



The Value of Reading Fiction. 



The Value of Reading Fiction, 



W HEIST glancing over tlie pages of tlie annual reports 
issued by the larger free libraries in the 
United States, and the tables of the classes of 
books read, many points worthy of earnest thought are 
suggested. ]^aturally, the old and well-worn question of 
the proportion of fiction read by the general public, as 
compared with books on special lines of thought, crops up. 
This is continually made the principal ground for adverse 
criticism, when the free library movement is discussed. 
It is entirely overlooked how many biographies prove that 
a perusal — and if this word be too feeble, a devouring — 
of books of romance was the beginning of the studies of a 
large proportion of the writers who have risen to eminence. 
We need only suggest the names of Southey, Scott, Chief 
Justice Coleridge and many others, who claimed that but 
for their early love and juvenile assimilation of works of 
romance, they would never have achieved the important 
positions in literary history to which they attained. 

It seems inconceivable that a person can "take himself 
"seriously" when, at the age of sixty, he sits down and 
says, with a solemn air: "I think it is a sad thing to 



346 HITHER AND THITHER. 

"see persons reading so mnch fiction wlicn lliej conld be 
"persuaded to stndy important volnmes if only tlie heads 
"of libraries wonld direct them aright." The experiences 
of any snch talkers, if they should volunteer suggestions 
to the average reader in a free public library, would be 
worth recording. Earnest carers for the proper treatment 
of liooks have been known to offer suggestions to readers 
in public libraries not to moisten their fingers when turn- 
ing over the pages ; yet, instead of being thanked for the 
suggestion, they have been brusquely admonished to mind 
their own business. 

For the purpose of affording easy access to certain lines 
of reading, it became necessary, some fifty years ago, to 
make classifications of books. It was desired that every 
person pursuing a particular study should find collected 
upon contiguous shelves, books relating to this or that par- 
ticular topic. It is common knowledge how this sj'stem 
of classification was worked out, and how two or three 
leading systems of classification became the subject of 
earnest discussion among librarians. 

Whether librarians should adopt the system of classifica- 
tion formulated by John Edmands, that by C. A. Cutter, 
or that by Melvil Dewey was a comparatively immaterial 
point, so far as the public was concerned. But for libra- 
rians it was a serious question, how and where to shelve 
books not easily assigTied to the classes "Religion," 
"Sociology," "Useful Arts," "Eine Arts," "History," 
"Biography," "Travel," and so on through a tliousand sub- 
divisions. What was the best way of dealing with the 
tremendous percentage of books which came under their 



THE VALUE OF EEADING FICTION-. 347 

notice for classification, but which would not legitimately 
go into any one of the above divided and subdivided 
classifications ? To aid the public in gaining easy access 
to these volumes, many libraries decided not to put 
them under their legitimate classifications as ''Literature- 
"English-Fiction," "Literature-French-Fiction, " etc., as 
this would scatter them throughout the library; but 
to put them all into a single section designated 
"Fiction." And here comes the real question: What is 
"fiction," and what "fiction" is intrinsically worthy of 
perpetuation and circulation by free libraries ? If libra- 
rians were endued with superhuman intelligence, and 
were enabled to spend the time and money that would be 
required for the purpose, they could differentiate between 
"fiction" and "fiction," and by elimination end the discus- 
sion, now furiously waged, as to whether too much fiction 
is read for the good of the public. 

One of the principal objects of a free library is to 
create the habit of reading. It is useless at this period of 
the world to say that books^ can be ignored. Books are as 
large a part of life and progress to-day as are the over- 
discussed bacilli, which are supposed to have so much to 
do with our existence. We may or we may not be l3ene- 
fited, or injured, by bacilli. We must be benefited by the 
recorded thoughts of great men. 

If it would not occupy too much space, it would be a 
good thing to name some good round five hundred volumes 
of so-called "fiction" the reading of which would result 
in benefit equal to that Avhich would be obtained by the 
perusal of twice that number of solid, hard books of his- 
tory, travel and biography. 



348 HITHER AND THITHER. 

Perhaps a few examples will be sufficient for our pur- 
pose. A yoinig person taking up Defoe's "N'ew Voyage 
"Aronnd the World," and following it with the aid of a 
modern atlas, would, perhaps, be surprised to find that he 
learned more of the Philippine Islands, the volcanoes of 
the Andes and the tremendous difficulty of crossing from 
the Pacific to the Atlantic than from the carefully-prepared 
books placed before him during the course of his school 
life. 

Should a "fiction-fiend" take up, say. Sir Walter 
Besant's "Armorel of Lyonnesse," when he lays it down 
he will find that he knows more of the legends of the 
Arthurian cycle near Cornwall, England, than he ever 
acquired from more "solid and instructive" books. And 
beyond the mythical story, he will have learned a vast deal 
about the waters of that neighborhood, as well as the fauna, 
the flora and the habits of the inhabitants. 

Should he next take from a free library, William 
Black's "White Wings," even though he cannot afford to 
take a "trip across" and spend two or three weeks among 
the Lochs of Scotland, he will, if he will follow the story 
with a map, learn much of the west side of Scotland and 
its wonderful yachting possibilities ; and will acquire a 
more definite knowledge of the neighborhood than he could 
by six weeks' study in one of our higher schools. The 
same inquirer after knowledge will, perhaps, next take 
up Dumas' novel of "The Black Tulip," He will read 
the novel with avidity, but he will say: "How is it that 
"the story of the De Witts has always been told to me as 
"a case of two brothers murdered by a mad mob ? "Where 



THE VALUE OF READING FICTIOlSr. 349 

"did Dumas get his idea of their being murdered in 
"prison ?" 'No better proof of the value of the historical 
novel could be given, than this desire for more nearly 
correct information, created by the differences in the story 
as told by the historian and the novelist. It is probable 
that the reader, after laying down the novel, will come to 
the free library and say : "Can I see Larned's 'Dictionary 
" 'of Historical Reference' ? And can I borrow Motley ?" 
Should he do so he will read a gTcat deal which, in all 
probability, never would have attracted his attention had 
he not perused the despised volume of "fiction." 

ISTo reader of modern intelligence hesitates to accept the 
criticism passed on "The Marble Faun" — that it is the 
best guide to Rome ever written, A modern librarian 
would record the reader of "The Marble Faun" as a reader 
of "fiction," whilst he w^ould put down a person who took 
out a volume of Baedeker's "Guide to Rome" as a person 
studying "travel." The absurdity of contrasting these two 
readers only requires to be stated to afford amusement to 
a person who thinks upon the subject. 

Should a person come to a free library and take out 
"The Bell of St. Paul's," by Sir Walter Besant, could 
any honest and straightforward person maintain that the 
reader would not get a better idea of the neighborhood of 
the Globe Theatre, and the localities consecrated by the 
memory of William Shakespeare and his compatriots, than 
he would get from reading dry and earnestly-prepared 
descriptions of the neighborhood, placed by a classifica- 
tionist under the title of "History" or "Travel and Descrip- 
"tion" ? 



350 HITHER AJ^D THITHER. 

A great many persons of antique age, and a number of 
boys who will grow to be the grandfathers of a future 
generation, Avill, if honest, own that their first studies on 
the matter of comets, their inconsequential concussions 
with other bodies during their swift travels through space, 
their arrivals at nowhere, and their disappearance into 
nowhere, were incited by reading Jules Verae's "Hector 
"Servadac." It would be impossible to disprove — and, 
therefore, possibly may be considered proved — that, rather 
than read three volumes of the history of Queen Anne, a 
previously uninstructed but information-hunting reader 
would do better to study Bulwer-Lytton's "Devereux" ; 
that if he wants to make the acquaintance of Swift, Pope, 
Addison, Steele, Bolingbroke, Colley Cibber, and a hun- 
dred and one persons of that period, he can do so better 
by reading this novel, than by reading Hume and Smol- 
lett's histories of the same few decades. 

Can it be denied that a reader will store in his brain a 
better idea of Devonshire, England, by reading Black- 
more's Lorna Doone" — of which one who should know 
said : " 'Lorna Doone,' to a Devonshire man, is as good 
"as clotted cream, almost" — than by reading the curt 
notices of the locality given in a gazetteer ? It seems incred- 
ible that a person who reads a history should be stated to 
be reading a good book and a book worth taking out from 
a free public library; whilst his co-reader, who takes out 
George Eliot's "Roniola" should be charged with wast- 
ing his time because he is reading a book of "fiction." The 
latter Avill have a more fixed idea of Savonarola and his 
period than the ordinaiy reader of a "life" of the great 
reformer. 



THE VALUE OF READING FICTION. 351 

A person reading Dumas' ten volumes of "The Three 
"Musketeers," "Twenty Years After" and "The Vicomte 
"de Bragelonne" will be more deeply inspired to read the 
history of France, and especially that of the period of 
L<3uis XIV., than if he had taken any number of pre- 
liminary canters through serious histories. 

More knowledge can be acquired of the times of the 
Countess of Derby and the consequences of the warfare 
that was carried on by that pugnacious but magnificent 
woman, by reading Ainsworth's "The Leaguer of 
"Lathom" than by reading any history of that particular 
period. In it are more of the real ins and outs of the 
civil war in Lancaster than in many solid but not alto- 
gether interesting books of pure history. It is unneces- 
sary to mention such books as Bulwer-Lytton's "Harold" 
and his "The Last of the Barons." If you want to teach 
persons to study periods, times and histories, you must 
start them on a plane which will lead them to study. 
A boy of twelve, a lad of twenty, and a man of thirty are 
all still on the hunt for knowledge, information and 
development, and it is out of place for a man of fifty or 
sixty years of age to sit at his table and say : "What a pity 
"it is that people do not take out" (at the age of twenty) 
"the books in which I have learned to delight !" 

Most young persons are not ready to take out such books. 
They have yet to make a closer acquaintance with Mal- 
lory, Cervantes, Scott and a hundred other romance 
writers; and who will deny that these writers themselves 
were romance readers before their general education was 
completed ? Who can get a better idea of Andreas Hofer 



352 HITIIEK AND THITHER. 

tliau the fiction lover who will read Miihlbaeh's novel of 
that name ? Who can get such an idea of the "no-popery" 
riots of Lord George Gordon and the hideous period of the 
French Revolution as those who read "Barnaby Rudge" 
and "A Tale of Two Cities" ? Who will get such an idea 
of the unhappy life, imprisonment and death of Mary of 
Scots as the reader of Scott's "The Abbot" ? In the notes 
to this novel will be found a better description of the 
escape of Queen Mary from Loch Leven than will be found 
in any "history." Who will not benefit by the conception 
of the great composer, Mendelssohn, given in the novel 
"Charles Auchester" ? Who will get a more splendid idea 
of Rienzi than the man who reads Bulwer-Lytton's novel 
of that name ? Who will get such an idea of Loch Katrine 
and the glorious Ellen's Isle as the man who studies Scott's 
"The Lady of the Lake" ? Who will know more of Wal- 
lace and Bruce than the peruser of "The Scottish Chiefs" ? 
Who will have such a good idea of a castle raised to such a 
height of magnificence, that it was capable of entertain- 
ing royalty with more than royal hospitality, and which 
to-day is a mere shell of broken-down ruin, than the 
reader of Scott's "Kcnihvorth" ? Who will get a better 
idea of the industry and labor of persons like Xiccolo 
Porpora, who was so great an instructor of singers that he 
became known as the "greatest singing-master that ever 
"lived," than he who reads "Consuelo," wherein Porpora 
appears as the master of Ilaydn and a delightful repre- 
sentation of humanity '^ 

Truly it may be said that decricrs of fiction-reading are 
behind the age. A lot of the stufi: that is classed under 



THE VALUE OF HEADING FICTION. 353 

"fiction" is undoubtedly beneath contempt; and until 
librarians can issue better tables of circulation and dif- 
ferentiate between "fiction" and "fiction," just so long will 
the wrong idea prevail abroad that libraries foster fiction 
reading when "they might do better work." 

If the readers of volumes taken out from public libraries 
do nothing but obtain amusement, no money that is devoted 
to their maintenance is better expended. If the people 
are provided with good water, healthy reading, and open 
space for recreation, cities are spending money in a most 
excellent way. Cranks may cry: "Free libraries are a 
"fad;" "free libraries circulate fiction;" but only those 
who can lay their hands on their hearts and honestly state 
that they have read one-sixtieth part of the wholesome 
literature which makes an improved man, may be heard 
about free libraries. Until they can do this, let them 
remember the old adage, "Look to your own coop, and then 
"find fault with your neighbors' chickens." 



Earnestness a Necessity 
for Permanence. 



Earnestness a Necessity for 
Permanence/ 



IN its baldest sense, the statement that earnestness is a 
necessary element of success is a simple truism. 
It may be taken as beyond dispute that nothing 
attains permanency which has not been conceived in care- 
ful thought, gradually developed, and finally brought to 
fruition by earnest effort. It is not at all implied that 
earnestness will necessarily produce permanence. 

Some of the most earnest workers have beaten the Avind 
and put their energy, strength and the fullest powers of 
mind to accomplish an end which has resulted in nothing 
more valuable than a pricked bladder. 

Cotton Mather and his coadjutor, the minister IsToyes, 
bent their whole minds to the accomplishment of some- 
thing in the direction of the suppression of witchcraft. 
Consider the whole of the witchcraft, or rather anti-witch- 
craft movement. What was its net result ? The production 
for the edification of bibliophiles of many interesting, 
however odd, books on a subject which nine hundred and 
1 A paper read before the Philadelphia "Browning Society." 



358 HITHER AND THITHER. 

ninety-nine persons ont of a thousand know to have been 
a matter of credulity and imagination. If we had but the 
courage to bring exjierience to bear on fads as they arise 
in the world, how many misbeliefs would fall of their 
own weight. Instead, like children in the presence of a 
conjuror, we cry, "Ah, yes, but there must be something 
"in it," and so fallacies and frauds are coddled into 
beliefs. 

ISTo great result will ever be accomplished without 
enthusiasm. But misapplied enthusiasm is an injury 
and not a benefit. 

Charles Dickens has defined earnestness as being some- 
thing that involves thoroughgoing ardor and sincerity, and 
Pascal tells us that earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by 
reason. 

An assurance or proof of the necessity of sincere earnest- 
ness as a precursor of work that shall become permanent 
may be deduced from the results attained by the novelist 
Nathaniel Hawthorne. He had not what might be called 
the pen of a ready writer, nor did he throw oif his books 
and stories with the fire and fury attributed to Benjamin 
Disraeli. He had not the steady peg-at-it methods of 
Anthony Trollope; he had not the dogged so-many-hours- 
a-morning methods of Sir Walter Scott. His attainment 
of a position of permanency among the army of great 
writers was accomplished through painful industry. His 
earlier writings were printed here and there, and to all 
appearances, promised to have but a fugitive fame. When 
his "Twice Told Tales" were gathered together, the revela- 
tion of their value through the genial and lovable review 



EARNESTNESS A NECESSITY FOR PERMANENCE. 359 

by Longfellow created something of astonishment. The 
story of how he was pressed by his friend and publisher to 
give to the world "The Scarlet Letter" only continues the 
story. Hawthorne's earnestness consisted in thinking, or 
rather plodding, over his stories until they were fully ripe 
for committal to paper. He himself has said that his 
stories "growled within him" and slowly took form. We 
are not concerned with arguing whether they are good or 
bad, great or small; they are permanent. ISTever would 
they have become so but for the earnestness which he put 
into his work, and which enabled him to take the position 
of a great writer. 

Probably Samuel Smiles, in his "Self Help," has 
adduced no stronger proof of the relation of earnestness to 
permanence than in his account of the work of Sir William 
Herschel and his sister Caroline. Herschel played an oboe 
in the band of the Durham Militia ; then became a violin 
player at concerts; then an organist, and then, without 
assistance from tutors, a student of mathematics. Fasci- 
nated by the study of the heavens, and unable to purchase 
a telescope from want of means, he made his own instru- 
ments, working with a patience and perseverance hardly 
ever excelled. Alternately taking a turn at the oboe and a 
turn at the observation of the heavens, he was rewarded 
by discovering the planet Uranus or Georgium Sidus. 

Smiles remarks that "so gentle and patient, and withal 
"so distinguished and successful a follower of science 
"under difficulties, perhaps cannot be found in the entire 
"history of biography." ^ 
* Self-Help, chap. v. 



360 HITHER AND THITHER. 

The discussion Lord Bacon versus Shakespeare is of 
little importance (although, hy the by, Lord Bacon's earn- 
estness in collecting undeclared dividends for his own 
private pocket has left him a permanent record which few 
will envy), nor is it probable that the earnestness of Delia 
Bacon will result in anything permanent, but may rather 
be quoted as an example of misplaced enthusiasm or 
energy. But nothing but earnestness in seeking for the 
best plots, and earnestness in his work as a dramatist, 
could have achieved for the immortal poet, William Shake- 
speare, the permanent position he has attained. 

We know how nearly the true Shakesj^eare was lost to 
the world. We know how his best plays were tortured and 
distorted by the butchers who beneath a claim of improve- 
ment, temporarily mutilated the beauty of their whole- 
souled form, but whose weapons were insufficient to destroy 
either their innate strength or their innate life. So great 
was their strength, so magnificent their poetical physique, 
that like a tree that has been bruised, but recovers itself 
with time and care, Shakespeare's plays have happily in 
our days been restored to their pristine dignity. 

It is almost incredible that such a drama as "Law 
"Against Lovers,"^ by Sir William Davenant, now rele- 
gated to oblivion, should ever have been tolerated. This 
play is a mixture of Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" 
and "Much Ado About !N"othing," and where the language 
of Shakespeare "is rough or obsolete," Davenant, we are 
told, "has taken care to polish it." He, in his "Macbeth,"^ 

* Produced February 18, 1662. 
Mto. 1673, 1687, 1710. 



EAEHESTNESS A NECESSITY FOR PERMANENCE. 361 

"adapted" Shakespeare's tragedy ? With Dryden he pro- 
duced an interpolated version of Shakespeare's "Tem- 
pest,"^ into which they introduced Hippolito as "one that 
"never saw a woman," as a foil to the incomparable 
Miranda, the daughter of Prospero, and further desecrated 
the immortal play by giving Caliban, a sister Sycorax, one 
of "two monsters of the isle."^ 

What shall be said of John Lacy's "Sawny the Scot,"^ 
from Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew," in which 
Padua becomes London, Grumio is turned into Sawny, 
and the fifth act is almost altogether new? The writer 
is old enough to remember with joy the reproduction on the 
stage of the Princess' Theatre, of "Richard III.," by 
Charles Kean, when he abolished CoUey Cibber ; giving to 
delighted Londoners, Shakespeare in the original, after 
it had been long forgotten, by the admirers of the clap- 
trap, which had taken the place of its sturdy magnificence. 

Shakespeare's work was the product of earnestness, and 
this earnestness has made the work permanent. At least 
such it would seem would be the judgment of all thinking 
literary persons at the present time. Charles Kean and 
Samuel Phelps deserve a world of praise for their restora- 
tion of Shakespeare's text in their magnificent series of 
Shakespearean revivals. 

To take another illustration, John Milton undoubtedly 

^ Pepys states it was produced November 7, 1667, but it does not 
appear in the Davenant folio. 

^The Rivals (4to. 1668) is another of Davenant's alterations, being 
a rendition of The Two Noble Kinsmen. Davenant and Dryden have 
also been accused of a contemptible version of Julius Csesar (12mo. 
1719), but the charge cannot be proven. 

' 4to. 1698, 1708, 1714. 



362 HITHER AND THITHER. 

was an earnest man, and whilst no comment or observation 
need be made on his political or religious opinions, the 
necessity of earnestness to ensure permanence, and inci- 
dentally the fact that earnestness does not always involve 
the attainment of success, is shoAvn by the facts connected 
with his "Paradise Lost." 

Do all or many feel how great this epic is, or thor- 
oughly realize that it must have been the product of an 
almost unequalled earnestness ? Admirable as were the 
proportions of his work, they formed no protection against 
the almost certainty of its failure to take a place amongst 
the great writings of the world. He sold the manuscript 
for a bagatelle. It failed to attract general attention when 
first issued from the press, and when Tonson secured the 
rights of copyright, in so far as they remained in tlie first 
publisher, what a risk he ran! The first edition (S. Sim- 
mons) had appeared in 1667, and before it was sold off, 
the printer had given it eight title pages, as ''whets" to 
the public appetite. Tonson secured half rights in 1683, 
and whole rights in 1690. The work increasing in popu- 
larity, Tonson had the adventitious personal benefits and 
Milton the permanence.^ 

Some of the greatest artists of the world have enforced 

the lesson that earnestness is a necessity. Salvini said 

that you must "study, study, study," and that all the 

genius in the world would not help anyone in any art 

unless he became a hard student. Salvini confessed, as 

to himself, that it had taken him years to master a single 

^The second edition Simmons, 1674; third edition, 1678; fourth 
edition (Tonson), 1688; fifth edition, 1692, etc. 



EARNESTNESS A NECESSITY FOE PERMANENCE. 363 

part. Garrick, wlien questioned by a bishop how the 
actor could make people look on and regard a made-up 
story as true, whilst the bishop had difficulty in making 
people believe the real truth, answered sarcastically, though 
with a deal of truth: "Is it not, my lord, that you 
"preach the truth as if you did not believe it, while I act 
"that which is not true as if I did believe it ?" 

Shiftlessness is the very opposite of earnestness, and is 
it deniable that shiftlessness is the cause of much failure ? 

How did Charles Lamb comment on Samuel Taylor 
Coleridge? "He is an archangel a little damaged." 
When we think of what Coleridge was and what he might 
have been, we admit that there are few sadder pictures in 
the whole gallery of English literature. What was it he 
lacked ? Earnestness ! The books he was going to write 
would fill pages by their mere titles. It has been not 
unpleasantly remarked that the world is full of unsuccess- 
ful men who have spent their lives "letting empty buckets 
"down into empty wells." 

Bulwer Lytton says that "the man who has acquired the 
"habit of study, though only for one hour every day in the 
"year, and keeps to the one thing studied until it is mas- 
"tered, will be startled to see the way he has made at the 
"end of a twelvemonth." 

Is not this saying, in another form, that permanence 
cannot be achieved without earnestness ? Franklin cried : 
"Stand firm, don't flutter;" in other words, be earnest! 
Force concentration. 

"Whate'er your forte, to that your zeal confine ; 
"Let all your efforts there concentered shine." 



364 HITHER AND THITHER. 

The very opi^osite to the eondnet of Coleridge is the 
advice of Goethe : 

"Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute, 
"What you can do, or dream you can, begin it."* 

An enormous proportion of the work of life that is 
injured, proves useless, or results in small ends, comes from 
hurry. "Hurry not only spoils work," says Lubbock, "but 
"spoils life also." 

Earnestness that accomplishes success and permanence 
must be thoroughgoing. That is not earnestness which 
shows itself in hair-splitting, in doing over minutely this, 
tliat or the other work, when a bolder method would do 
it thoroughly, do it well, and avoid a waste of time. What 
is the difference between a great painter of scenes for the 
stage and a pre-Raphaelite artist ? 

The scenic artist works with intense earnestness. The 
result is the production on the stage of a magnificent bit of 
color; a taste delightful to the eye. It has, however, no 
enduring quality, but is used, applauded generally, and in 
a very short period of time put on one side forever. 

The pre-Raphaelite painter, probably, has not put more 
earnestness into his work, but he has deliberately planned 
to do something lasting, whether it results in canvasses, 
such as those by Rossetti; or "The Light of the World," 
and the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," by Holman Hunt, or 
not. Earnestness has been expended with a view to perma- 
nence. 

When all is said and done, what is here proved ? This 
only, that the statement "earnestness is a necessity for 
"permanence" is a simple truism. 

* Faust. 



Index. 



ABBOT, The, see Seott. 
Abduction, see History Re- 
peats Itself. 
Absolution, see Confession. 
Adam and Eve, as two men. ... 38 

fall of, on Friday 276 

story of 301 

Addison, Joseph 54 

in Devereux 56, 350 

in Henry Esmond 56 

.iEneid, see Virgil. 

.^sop, a mythical person 294 

his Fables, Babrius' verse 

form of 297 

illustrated editions of .... 298 
Phsedrus' indebtedness to. .297 

popularity of 297 

Socrates' verse form of... 297 
identified with Lokman and 

Joseph 295 

Adventurer, The 58 

contributors to 58 

story in, founded on Gay's 

life 58 

Adventuees of Robinson 

Ceusoe, The 155 

see also Defoe. 
Advertising, methods of John 

Newberry 84 

Aglio,Mons. and Kins:sborough.210 
Ainsworth, W. H., his Leaguer 

of Lathom 351 

Alcuin, his definition of herbs. 78 
Alexander II., Codex Sinaiticus, 

presented to 203 

Alexandre Dumas 309 

see also Dumas. 



All Fooles, see Chapman. 

Alphabet-books 81 

Alpine flowers, see Handbook 
of. 

Amazon, loss of 280 

Ambrosian Library, its Ter- 
ence manuscript 185 

Americans, as lost tribe of 
Manasseh 6 

Andreas Hofer, see Mtihlbach. 

Anfange der Druckerkunst, and 
playing cards 46 

Anglo-Saxons, see Ten Lost 
Tribes. 

Animals, characters of 301 

in fables 294 

Annals, different to histories . . 33 

Anne Boleyn, mourning worn 
by Henry VIII 268 

Ansgar, St., and the Biblia 
Pauperum 48 

Anstey, F., his Tinted Venus, 
source of 35 

Antiquities of Mexico, see 
Kingsborough. 

Ape and shoemaker, story of . . 26 

Arabia, mourning customs 264 

Aristotle, quoted 251 

Arkite Temple offerings and 
Hot cross buns 282 

Armorel of Lyonnesse, see Be- 
sant. 

Armorica, Arthurian legends in. 119 

Arnim, Grafin von, her Eliza- 
beth and her German 

Garden 45 

her Solitary Summer 45 



366 



INDEX. 



Arnold, Matthew, his Tristram 

and Iseult, source of 118 

Ars Moriendi 47 

where reproduced 47 

Art exhibition, satirical 59 

Art Treasures, see Few Art 

Treasures, A. 
Arthur, King, legends of, in 

Armorel of Lyonnesse .... 348 
Arthur, Morte d', see Morte 

Darthur. 
Arthurian legends, see Morte 

Darthur. 
Arts au Moyen Age, see Middle 

Ages. 
Ascham, Roger, his Schole 

Master 81 

quoted 117 

his Toxophilus 117 

on immorality of Morte Dar- 
thur 117 

Asses, shoes for 250 

Assumpta est Maria, see Pales- 

trina. 
Astronomy, Aztec knowledge of.216 

Bede's views on 78 

taught by fiction 350 

Augustine, Order of St., and the 

Imitation 324 

Austen, Jane, her literary 

methods 313 

Authorships, disputed ...295, 323 
Avery collection, of architect- 
ural books 342 

Averying, Henry de, and horse- 
shoes 253 

Aztecs, astronomy, their knowl- 
edge of 216 

baptism practiced by 214 

confession and absolution 

practiced by 214 

cross, use of on altars 216 

descended from Ten Lost 

Tribes 213 

hieroglyphics of, how painted.222 

heroes, Eight-Deer 223 

and Twelve-Ollin 222 

manuscripts, see Mexican An- 
tiquities, 
marriage ceremonies of 223 



Aztecs, marriage customs and 

ceremonies 212 

marriage laws 214 

nation, founded by Votan. . .213 
nose ornaments, significance 

of 223 

restricted daily conveniences. 213 
telescope, their disputed 

knowledge of 216 

tradition of St. Thomas 214 

tradition of the Deluge 214 

tradition of the Redemption. 2 14 
tradition of triumph of new 

religion 216 

traditions of Biblical events. 214 

BABEL, Tower of, Votan pres- 
ent at 213 

Babrius 297 

his Fables, drawn from 

^sop 297 

Lewis' edition of 290 

Babylonian laws, see Code, The 

Hammurabi. 
Bacon, Delia, earnestness of. . .360 
Bacon, Friar Roger, his works, 

scope of 16 

his career 16 

his experiment in Black-art... 17 
Bacon, Lord, his literary 

methods 313 

his New Atlantis 166 

Baini, on Palestrina's Papae 

Marcelli 305 

Baldness, cures for 20 

Baptism, practiced by Aztecs. .214 
Baring-Gould, S., his Curious 

Myths 216 

Barnaby Rudge, see Dickens. 
Barnes, Albert, his literary 

methods 312 

Barry, Gerald du, see Giraldus 

Cambrensis. 
Bartsch, Adam, his visiting 

cards 242 

Barzuyeh, his translation of 

Bidpai 292 

Basilica di San Marco 97 

Basset, M. E. S., her Judith's 

Garden 46 

Bath, on visiting cards 242 



INDEX. 



867 



Bayle, Peter, his literary 

methods 312 

Beaconsfield, Lord, his literary 

methods 312 

on Gray 313 

Beaumont and Fletcher, their 

Women Pleased 293 

their indebtedness to Bid- 

pai 293 

Beaumont, Joseph, his Psyche. 313 

Beauprfe, Mile, carriage of 129 

Becket, Archbishop, sources of 

information about 27 

Bede, The Venerable, on astro- 
nomy 78 

Bedfordshire Library, its copy 

of Book of Martyrs 153 

Belgians, King of the, mishap 

of 58 

Bell of St. Paul's, see Besant. 
Benedict, Order of St., and the 

Imitation 324 

Beranger, P. J. de, his literary 

methods 313 

Beroaldo, Philip, the younger, 

editor of Tacitus ms 180 

Berrys, The Miss, and Walpole.242 

their visiting cards 241 

Besant, Sir Walter, his Armorel 

of Lyonnesse 348 

his Bell of St. Paul's 349 

Bethe, Eric, his introduction to 

Terence fac-similes 186 

Bible, events in, in Aztec tradi- 
tions 214 

Text of the 191 

see also History of the Old 
and New Testaments. 

Biblia Pauperum 48 

where reproduced 48 

windows of Herschare Con- 
vent in 48 

Bibliomaniacs criticised in The 

Tatler 55 

Bidpai, his Fables, Beaumont 
and Fletcher's indebtedness 

to 293 

Firdausi on their discovery . 292 

first translation 292 

Jacobs' edition 293 

Lafontaine's indebtedness to. 293 
Lewis Taylor on .294 



Bidpai, Massinger's indebted- 
ness to 293 

Binney, Horace, and illumi- 
nating gas 110 

Biography, study of, incited by 

fiction 33 

taught by fiction 350 

Births, number per minute. . .261n 
Black, William, his White 

Wings 348 

Black-art, Friar Bacon's experi- 
ment 17 

Blackmore, R. D., his Lorna 

Doone 350 

Blades, William, his Pentateuch 

of Printing 48 

Blanco, Fr. Manuel, his Flora 

de Filipinas 44 

Blind, books for the 341 

Block-Books, Ars Moriendi. ... 47 

Biblia Pauperum 48 

Brussels book, dispute as to 

date of 47 

Canticum Canticorum 49 

dates of 47 

Dutuit's book on 48 

how made 46 

Bodleian Library, Mendoza col- 
lection 210 

St. Margaret's Book of the 

Gospels 233 

Boileau, M., and Sfevres porce- 
lain factory 130 

Bolingbroke, Lord, in Devereux.350 
Bonaventura, the Imitation 

ascribed to 326 

Boniface, Duke, his horses shod 

with silver 249 

Book Hunter, see Burton. 
Book of Martyrs, see Fox. 
Books, as funeral memorials. .271 

classifications of 346 

for the blind 341 

greatness of 147 

Newberry's methods to en- 
courage sales 84 

suggestions to users of not 

appreciated 346 

Borrow, Robert de, his claims 
not reconcilable with 
Map's 121n 



368 



Borunda, discoverer of key to 
Mexican hieroglyphics ...210 

Botany and Block-Books 39 

Bottger, discoverer of kaolin in 
Europe 128 

Bourgeois, Dumas' assistant. . .314 

Bourke, Comtesse de, abduction 
of 335 

Bourke, Mile., abduction of... 335 
source of Modern Telemachus.336 

Bradley, J. W., his Dictionary 
of Miniaturists 229 

Brahmins, Friday supersti- 
tions 277 

Brazil, colonized by John III . . 135 

Bread, baked on Good Friday, 
properties of 283 

Bremen Cathedral, sculptures 
of 48 

Breviary of Cardinal Gei- 

MANI 225 

see also Grimani. 

Bride of Lammermoor, see Scott. 

British Essayists 51 

British Museum, its Codex 
Alexandrinus 191 

Bruce, Robert, in Scottish 
Chiefs 352 

Brun, Walter le, and horse- 
shoes 254 

Brunetto, Dante's revenge on . . 82 

Brussels Block-Book, dispute 
as to date 47 

Brutus, King Nezahualpilli a 
second 215 

Buchanan, Robert, his Shadow 
of the Sword, incentive to 
study of Napoleoniana. ... 32 

Bulls and blunders, in Robin- 
son Crusoe 157 

in translations of Franklin's 
Autobiography 175 

Bulwer-Lytton, Lord, his Com- 
ing Race 166 

his Devereux, historical chjir- 

acters in 350 

introduces Steele and Ad- 
dison 55 

his Harold 351 

his Last of the Barons 351 

his Rienzi 352 

on earnestness . . . 363 



Buns, Hot cross 281 

pagan origin of 281 

see also Good Friday. 
Bunyan, John, his copy of 
Fox's Book of Martyrs.. .153 

his early life 151 

his Holy War 151 

Canon Venables on 151 

Froude, J. A., on 151 

Lord Macaulay on 151 

his Pilgrim's Progress 150 

Canon Venables on 151 

Dr. Johnson on 155 

editions of 152 

Froude, J. A., on 151 

his authorship disputed. . .323 
influence of Morte Darthur 

on 122 

Lord Macaulay on. . . . 150, 151 

Richard Dowling on 150 

humor of 153 

lives of 163 

number of his works 154 

on death of Bishop Gardiner. 153 
variations in spelling his 

name 153 

Buonaventura, see Bonaventura. 
Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, and 

horse-shoes 257 

Burke, Edmund, his literary 

methods 313 

Burton, J. H., his Book Hunter, 

on children's books 78 

Burton, Richard, on Utopian- 
ism 171 

Busby, wielder of the cane 80 

Butler, Samuel, his Hudibras, 

on horse-shoes 257 

Byron, Lord, his Childe Harold, 

on Laocoon group 69 

Byzantine Empire, mourning 
customs 264 

CABYLES, their abduction of 
the De Bourkes 336 

Cadaver, origin of word 24 

Cajetan, C o n s t a ntine. Dean 

Hook on 326 

on authorship of the Imita- 
tion 326 

Calenius, Walter, his manu- 
script 119 



INDEX. 



369 



Calenius, Walter, doubt as to. .120 

Caliban, a sister to 361 

Cambrensis, Giraldus, see Gi- 
raldus Cambrensis. 

Camels, shoes for 250 

Campbell, Lord, on indexes. ... 15 
Canaanites, their use of horse- 
shoes 250 

Candles, not known to Aztecs. 213 

Cane, Busby, wielder of 80 

Wack Durham, wielder of . . 82 

Canticum Canticoriun 49 

Canova, A., his visiting card. . .241 

Caradoc, of Llancarvan 120 

Cards, see Playing cards. 
Cards, see Visiting cards. 
Carnegie, Andrew, and The Free 

Library of Philadelphia. .341 
Carpets, see Oriental Carpets. 
Carriage, with porcelain panels. 129 
Carvill, William, introducer of 

cricket in America 112 

Casanova, A., his designs for 

visiting cards 242 

Catherine, St., Convent of, 

and Codex Sinaiticus 200 

Catherine II., her porcelain ser- 
vice 131 

Catullus, quoted 251 

Caxton, William, his Myrrour, 

definition of rhetoric 82 

his Morte Darthur, reprint 

of 115 

his Thymage 82 

Cervantes, Miguel de, Coleridge, 

S. T., on 163 

Heine, Heinrich, on 163 

his Don Quixote 161 

Dr. Johnson on 155 

dramatizations of 163 

editions of 161 

Irving's performance of... 163 
its influence on manners 

and literature 161 

Sedg^vick, H. D., on 164 

his Persilis and Sigismunda.163 

Scott, Sir W., on 163 

other authors' estimation of. 163 
Chalmers, Alexander, his edi- 
tion of British essayists ... 60 

24 



Chambers, Robert, on playing 
cards 243 

Chapman, George, his All 
Fooles 188 

Charlemagne, piece of his 
horse's shoe 253 

Charles Auchester, see Sheppard. 

Charms, against bewitchment. .275 

Chaucer, G., his N o n n e s 
Preestes Tale, quoted, on 
Friday 276 

Cheats of Scapin, see Molifere. 

Chess, Ulysses, inventor of ... . 26 

Child and His Book, see Field. 

Childe Harold, see Bvron. 

Children, duty of . . .- 79 

Children, effect of Puritanism 
on 83 

Children's Literature 75 

Chinese, mourning customs of. 262 

Chips from a German Work- 
shop, see Migration of 
Fables. 

Chronicle of Abbey of Evesham, 
see Evesham. 

Chronicles, annals not histories. 33 

humorous statements in 38 

used in fiction 35 

see also Early Chronicles. 

Chronicles and Memorials, see 
Master of the Rolls Series. 

Chronicon, Geoffrey of Mon- 
mouth's, source of 119 

Cibber, Colley, in Devereux .... 350 

Cistercian monastery, see 
Melsa. 
monks, disliked by Giraldus 
Cambrensis 19 

Civil Government, see Locke. 

Clarke, Dr., editor English edi- 
tion of Oriental Carpets ... 70 

Clarke, Marcus, His Natural 
Life, incentive to study of 
penology 32 

Clement, St., his Epistles, ms. 
of 196 

Clemes monachos 199 

Code, The Hammurabi 87 

see also Hammurabi. 

Codex, Aleph 201 

Alexandrinus 191 

date of 192 



370 



INDEX. 



Codex, Alexandrinus, facsimile 

of 193 

lacunae 196 

presented to James 1 195 

St. Thecla alleged scribe of.l94 

Ephraemi 192n 

Frederico Augustanus 201 

Graeci et Latini — Tacitus. .. 179 

Terence 185 

volumes issued 181 

Sinaiticus 192 

date of 192 

discoveiy of 200 

Eusebius alleged scribe of. 205 

Vaticanus 191 

date of 192, 197 

fac-similes of 197 

injuries to 199 

lacunae 197 

see also Mexican Antiqui- 
ties. 
see also Nuttall Codex. 
Codices, Uncial writing in.... 193 
Cole, Dr., loss of commission 

to persecute heretics 244 

Coleridge, S. T., on Piranesi . . 67 

Lamb on 363 

on Cervantes 163 

Colet, Dean, friendship with 

Sir Thomas More 168 

Colman, George B., joint-editor 

of The Connoisseur 59 

Columbia University Library, 

its Avery collection 342 

Columbus, Christopher, proph- 
ecy regarding 74 

sailed on Friday 279 

Columbus, son of Christopher, 

his Vida y Hechos 74 

refutation of Genoan Poly- 
glot 74 

Comfort, Howard, his hit at 

cricket 112 

Coming Race, see Bulwer-Lyt- 

ton. 
Common of the Apostles and 

Evangelists, manuscript. . . 141 
Communications with the Un- 
seen World 216 

Confession and absolution, 

practiced by Aztecs 214 

Connoisseur, The 69 



Constantine, and the Codex 

Sinaiticus 205 

Consuelo, see Sand. 
Cornwall, Arthurian legends in. 11 9 
Corporal punishment in schools 81 
Corpse, origin of word in Latin. 24 
Count of Monte Chisto, see 

Dumas. 
Courtesy, old-time books on ... . 80 
Courting, not permitted on Fri- 
day 278 

Coverley, Sir Roger de, see 
Spectator. 

Cox-Cox, the Aztec Noah 214 

Craik, Henry, on Utopia 169 

Cricket, first played in America 

at Haverford 112 

Criticism, excesses of 165 

Cross, on Aztec altars 216 

Crusades, eloquence of Giraldus 

Cambrensis 18 

Cumberland, Henry, publisher 

of The Observer 60 

Curious Myths, see Baring- 
Gould. 
Cutter, C. A., his classification. 346 
Cyrus, his fable Fisherman 
Piping 296 

DACIER, Mme., on Terence.. 187 
Daemonologie, see Home. 
Dante, his revenge on Brunetto 82 

D'Artagnan series 318, 351 

Darwin, Charles, his books on 

botany 45 

Davenant, Sir Wlliam, his 

adaptation of Macbeth 360 

his adaptation of The Tem- 
pest 361 

his Law against Lovers, an 

adaptation of Shakespeare.360 
his Rivals, an adaptation of 

Shakespeare 361n 

David, King, life of, paralleled 

by King Nezahualcoyotl. ..214 
Davies, James, translator of 

Lewis' Babrios 290 

Death, fictitious report of in 

The World 58 

Deaths, number per minute.. 261n 
Defence of Guenevere, see Mor- 
ris, 



3Y1 



Defoe, Daniel, changes of name.159 

his New Voyage 348 

his Review 54 

his Robinson Crusoe 155 

ascribed to Lord Oxford.. 160 

blunders in 157 

Dr. Johnson on 155 

editions of 159 

germ of, in Persilis and 

Sigismunda 163 

lessons of 156 

not due to Alexander Sel- 
kirk 157 

Poe on 159 

Rousseau on 159 

Scott on 155 

superior to Aristotle Buf- 

fon and Pliny 159 

his tomb 160 

Del Rio, his Disquisitions on 
Magic, on cutting nails . . . .281 

Deluge, Aztec account of 214 

Denmark, kings of, descended 

from David 9 

De Quincey, Thomas, on Pira- 

nesi's Dreams 67 

Derby, Countess of, in Leaguer 

of Lathom 351 

Devereux, see Bulwer-Lytton. 
Devonshire described in Lorna 

Doone 350 

Dewey, Melvil, his classifica- 
tion 346 

De Witts, The, in Black Tulip. 348 

Dibdin, T. F 77 

on Nuremberg Chronicle .... 37 

on Tacitus 180 

Dickens, Charles, his Barnaby 
Rudge, No Popery riots in. 3 52 
his definition of earnestness . 358 
his Tale of Two Cities, 

French revolution in 352 

Dictionary of Miniatursts, see 
Bradley. 

Dilke, Mrs., her funeral 270 

Disqviisitions on Magic, see Del 

Rio. 
Disraeli, see Beaconsfield. 
Dr. Sommer's Le Morte 

Darthur 113 

Doctors, forced to partake of 
own medicines 20 



Dog, as an assistant in sailing. 26 
Doge, of Venice, Palm Sunday 

procession of 100 

Dogs, on visiting cards 242 

shoes for 252 

D'Olivenga, Fr. Blasius 137 

Dominicale, manuscript 138 

Don Quixote 161 

see also Cervantes. 
Dowling, Richard, his Indolent 
Essays, on Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress 150 

Drakslaw, Count, his visiting 

card 243 

Dreams, Friday's 276 

Dresden porcelain, produced at 

Meissen 128 

Dryden, John, his adaptation 

of The Tempest 361 

Duff. Princess, and the Lost 

Tribes 10 

Dugdale, Sir William, quoted.. 270 
Dumas, Alexandre, his assist- 
ants 314 

his authorship disputed. .. .314 
his Black Tulip, introduces 

the De Witts 348 

his Count of Monte Cristo..317 
his D'Artagnan series. .318, 351 

Thackeray on 319 

his ending to Hamlet 315 

his literary prolificness 311 

his Marie Antoinette ro- 
mances 319 

history taught by 319 

Dundonald. Earl of, observance 

of Friday superstition. .. .280 
Durham, Wack, wielder of cane 82 
Dutuit, Eugene, his Manuel ... 48 

Duty, of children 79 

of men 79 

of women 79 

De Vries, see Vries. 

EACHARD, his satire on 
preachers 81 

Early Chronicles 29 

Earnestness a Necessity for 

Permanence 355 

Earnestness, Bulwer-Lytton on.363 

Delia Bacon's 360 

Dickens' definition 358 



372 



Earnestness, Franklin on 303 

Garriek on 363 

Goethe on 364 

HaAvthorne's 358 

Milton's 361 

misdirected 357 

not alone sufficient 364 

Pascal's definition 358 

Salvini on 362 

Shakespeare's 360 

William and Caroline Her- 

schel's 359 

Easter, spring lamb, due to 

Jewish Passover 282 

Edmands, John, his classifica- 
tion 346 

Edmonds, Mrs., and a Protest- 
ant persecution 244 

Education, fostered by Free 

Libraries 340 

Egypt, horse-shoes in 251 

Eight-Deer, Aztec hero... 222, 223 
Elijah, parallel tradition of St. 

Thomas 214 

Eliot, George, her literary 

methods 314 

her Romola 350 

Elizabeth, Queen, and a Protest- 
ant persecution 245 

Elizabeth and her German 

Garden, see Arnim. 
Ellis, Sir Henry, on authorship 

of Robinson Crusoe 160 

Eloquence, of Giraldus Cam- 

brensis 18 

Endurance feats, stupidity of.. 60 

Epic, the English 118 

Erasmus, and Sir Thomas 

More 168 

Erewhon, see Morris. 

Ethiopia, horse-shoes in 251 

Eusebius, alleged scribe of Co- 
dex Sinaiticus 205 

Eve, see Adam and Eve. 
Evesham, Abbey of, founded on 

spot of vision 35 

life at 22 

suppressed by Henry VIII.. 23 
Evesham, Chronicle of Abbey of 21 



FABLES 285 
^sop's, see ^sop. 
Babrius', see Babrius. 
Belly and the Members of the 

Body 296 

Bidpai's, see Bidpai. 

characters of animals in.... 294 

classes of 287 

definition of, De la Motte's..287 

Goldsmith's 287 

Lafontaine's 287 

Dog with Young 288 

Fisherman Piping 296 

Gay's, see Gay. 

Hitopadesa 291 

Horse and the Stag 296 

Man and the Lamb 291 

modified by travel 299 

Nightingale and the Hawk.. 290 

origin of 290 

Pantchatantra 291 

Perrette the Milkmaid 299 

Phaedrus', see Phaedrus. 

Thistle and the Cedar 289 

Trees electing a King 289 

Fac-similes Mexican, issued by 

Due de Loubat 217 

Fac-similes of Portions of 

THE WOEKS OF TeREXCE. 

THE Poet and Dramatist. 183 
Fac-similes of the Manu- 
scripts OF Tacitus 177 

see also Breviary of Car- 
dinal Grimani. 
see also Codex — Alexan- 

drinus. 
see also Codex — Sinaiti- 
cus. 
see also Codex — Vatica- 

nus. 
see also Mexican Antiqui- 
ties. 
see also Nuttall Codex. 
see also St. Margaret's 
Book of the Gospels. 
Faerie Queene, see Spenser. 
Fairies, Three, bring luck at 

birth 35 

Falier, Doge OrdelafTo, restorer 

of the Pala d'Oro 100 

Fall, The, happened on Friday.276 
Fasciculi ascribed to Xetter . . . 35u 



3T3 



Fasciculi, on the Lollards 35 

Felt, used for horse-shoes 255 

Ferial Book, manuscript. . 139, 140 
Ferrers, Henry de, origin of 

name of 253 

Few Art Teeasuees, A 63 

Fiction, an incentive to study.. 32 
Arthurian legends taught by.348 

astronomy taught by 350 

biography taught by 350 

circulation of, in libraries . . . 345 

educative •_ • ■ 347 

Fielding's comparison with 

history 160 

geography taught by 348 

history taught by _ 348 

how classified in libraries ... 347 

read by great men 345 

taken from old chronicles. . . 35 
Fiction, Value of Reading, 

The 345 

Fiefdoms, held by payment of 

horse-shoes 253 

Field, E. M., her Child and His 

Book 77 

Fielding, Henry, his compari- 
son of fiction and history. 160 

Fijian mourning customs 265 

Finns, Monday superstitions. .277 

Friday superstitions 277 

Firdausi, his Shah Nameh, 

quoted 292 

Fitzgerald, Percy, his charge 

against Dumas 314 

Fletcher, Beaumont and, see 

Beaumont and Fletcher. 
Flora de Filipinas, see Blanco. 
Floriculture, books on, see Bot- 
any and Block-Books. 
Flourishing of Romance, see 

Saintsbury. 
Flowers, books on, see Botany 
and Block-Books. 

Flying venom, cure for 20 

Folio, Tom, his opinion of The 

Tatler 55 

Forbes-Leith, Fr. W., editor of 
St. Margaret's Book of the 

Gospels 233 

Forest, similarity to a library, 

31, 41, 61, 65 



Fox, John, his Book of Mar- 
tyrs, Bunyan's copy of . ... 153 
Francis, Robert, his Code of 

Hammurabi 89 

Franklin, Benjamin, founder of 
Philadelphia Library .... 176 

his Autobiography 173 

demand for 175 

history of the manu- 
scripts 174n 

how published 174 

McMaster, J. B., on 176 

mistakes in translations of. 175 

when written 173 

life and works of, new edi- 
tion 176 

on earnestness 363 

Feanklin's Axjtobiogeaphy ... 1 7 3 

see also Franklin. 
Frederick Augustus, patron of 

Tischendorf 200 

Frederico Aiigustanus, Codex 
of, see Codex — Sinaiticus. 
Free Libraries, see Libraries. 
Free Library of Philadelphia, 

The, see Philadelphia. 
Freemasons, funeral customs 

of 271 

French mourning colours 266 

French Revolution, in Tale of 

Two Cities 352 

Friday 273 

attempts to disprove super- 
stitions 280 

blessed day to die 277 

Chaucer on 276 

Columbus sailed on 279 

courting on, disallowed 278 

dreams 276 

luckiness of 279 

marriages on 277 

origin of superstitions 

against 279 

sailors' superstitions 279 

ships lost which sailed on . . . 280 

streets named 282 

superstitions ..275 

travel on 279 

unluckiness of, origin 275 

see also Good Friday. 
Friday of Wilmington, loss of.280 
Friend, The 108 



374 



Friends, founders of Haverford 

College 108 

Froude, J. A., on Holy War. . .151 

on Pilgrim's Progress 151 

Fulvy, Orry de, his connection 

with Sevres porcelain 130 

Funerals, Freemason customs. 271 
John Paston's extravagance 

at 2G9 

memorial books 271 

Mrs. Dilke's, niggardly 270 

pretty custom at 271 

wine at 269 

see also Mourning. 

GAMA, on key to Mexican 
hieroglyphics 210 

Garden of a Commuter's Wife. 45 

Gardiner, Bishop, Bunyan on 
death of 153 

Gamier, Edouard, his Soft Por- 
celain of Sevres 66, 127 

see also Porcelain. 

Garrick, David, on earnestness. 363 

Gas, opposition to at Haverford 

College 110 

slight explosion of, at Haver- 
ford College 110 

Gay, Thomas, his Fables, illus- 
trated editions of 298 

his Old Woman and her Cats, 

quoted 256 

incident of, told in The Ad- 
venturer 58 

Genoa, see Lorenzo, San. 

Genoan Polyglot Psalter 71 

Geoffrey of Monmouth, his 
Chronieon, Arthurian 

legends in 120 

source of 119 

Geography, taught by fiction . . 348 

Gersen, John, the Imitation, 
ascribed to 326 

Gerson, Chancellor, the Imita- 
tion, ascribed to 327 

Gesta Romanorum, indebted- 
ness to Bidpai 293 

Gildas 119 

Giraldus Cambrensis, his life 
and works 18 

Gilroy, Mr., on Morte Darthur.llS 



Globe Theatre, in Bell of St. 

Paul's 349 

Goethe, J. W von, on earnest- 
ness 364 

Gold, horse-shoes of 249 

Goldsmith, Oliver, his defini- 
tion of a fable 287 

his literary methods 314 

his Vicar of Wakefield, 
original of Dr. Primrose . . 84 

on John Newberry 84 

Good Friday, bread baked on . . 283 

buns 281 

see also Hot cross buns. 

day for witches 275 

parsley sown on 283 

see also Friday. 
Gordon, Lord George, in 

Barnaby Pudge 352 

Gospels, Book of the, see Mar- 
garet, St. 
Gould, S. Baring-, see Baring- 
Gould. 

Graduale, manuscript 140 

Grail, Holy, see Morte Darthur. 
Gray, Thomas, Beaconsfield on.313 

his Elegy, a mosaic 323 

smallness of production 313 

Greeks, horse-shoes not common 

amongst 251 

mourning customs of 263 

Grimani, Cardinal, his Brev- 
iary 227 

contents of 228 

history of 228 

Morelli, Giacomo, on 227 

price paid for 228 

style of illustration 229 

time of execution 228 

Grimm's FairyTales duplicated 

in chronicles 35 

Growth of the Idylls, see 
Jones. 

Guardian, The 57 

Guardian, The, see Massinger. 

HAIMLET, see Shakespeare. 
Hammurabi Code, The . . 87 
its difference to the Mosaic 

code 92 

Hammurabi, King of Babylon, 
code of 89 



INDEX. 



375 



Hammurabi, his estimation of 

himself 90 

Handbook of Alpine flowers, 

see Sutherland. 
Handel, G. F., his Messiah com- 
posed in one month 16 

Harold, see Bulwer-Lytton. 
Harrington, James, his Oceana. 166 

Havebfobd College 105 

beginnings of 108 

call issued to raise funds... 109 

consumption of pie 110 

History of 107 

projected 1877 108 

its library 112 

music forbidden at Ill 

re-opening 1848 109 

slight explosion at 110 

suspension of, 1845 108 

tardy adoption of gas 110 

pioneer in American cricket. 112 
Hawk, generosity to its live 

bedding 26 

Hawkesworth, Dr. John, pub- 
lisher of The Adventurer. 58 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, earnest- 
ness of 358 

his Marble Faun, a guide 

book to Rome 349 

his Scarlet Letter 359 

his Twice Told Tales, re- 
viewed by Longfellow 358 

Haydn, Joseph, in Consuelo . . . 352 
Head, Talking-, Friar Bacon's. 17 
Hearne, Thomas, his literary 

methods 312 

Hector Servadac, see Verne. 
Heine, Heinrich, on Cervantes. 163 
Henry I., entertained by an 

Abbot 19 

Henry II., portrayed in Morte 

Darthur 122 

Henry IV., fondness for Friday .27 9 
Henry VIII., assumption of 
mourning for Anne Boleyn.268 

his treatment of More 167 

sponsor for the Winchester 

Round-Table 120 

Henry Esmond, see Thackeray. 

Henry of Huntingdon 120 

Herbs, defined by Alcuin 78 



Herodotus, his fable Fisherman 
Piping 296 

Herschare, Convent of, its 
windows in Biblia Pau- 
perum 48 

Herschel, Caroline, earnestness 
of 359 

Herschel, Sir William, dis- 
covery of Uranus 359 

earnestness of 359 

Smiles on 359 

Hesiod, his fable, Nightingale 
and the Hawk 290 

Hieroglyphics, Mexican, how 

painted 222 

alleged key to 210 

Hill, Lucy, and St. Margaret's 
Book of the Gospels 234 

Hilton, Walton, the Imitation 
ascribed to 328 

His Natural Life, see Clarke. 

Histories, how made 33 

History, Fielding's comparison 

of, with fiction 160 

in nursery rhymes 8 

taught by fiction 348 

HisTOEY OF Havebfobd Col- 
lege 107 

see also Haverford College. 

History of the Art of Printing, 
see Humphreys. 

History of the Britons, see 
Wace. 

History of the Old and New 
Testament, see Wesley. 

HiSTOBY Repeats Itself 333 

Hitopadesa 291 

Hobbes, Thomas, his Leviathan.166 

Hofer, Andreas, in Andreas 
Hofer 351 

Hogarth, William, contributor 
to satirical art exhibition. 59 
his Marriage k la Mode, and 
visiting cards 240 

Holbein, Hans, the younger, his 
picture of Sir Thomas 
More 172 

Holy Grail, see Morte Darthur. 

Holy War, see Bunyan. 

Holy Water, rivalled by horse- 
shoes 257 



376 



Holy day, his Marriage of the 
Arts, quoted on horse- 
shoes 255 

Home, Dr., his DiBmonologie, 

quoted on horse-shoes 255 

Homer, a mythical person 323 

Hood, Dean, on Cajetan 326 

Horn-books 81 

Horse-shoes 247 

as protection against witches. 25G 

as rival to Holy Water 257 

as toll 253 

Baroness Bvirdett-Coutts' be- 
lief in 257 

belief in, derived from men- 
isci 257 

Butler on 257 

Casaubin on 250 

Catullus' reference to 251 

early forms of 251 

first use of, unknown 250 

forge held by payment of . . . 254 

furnished for fief doms 253 

good-luck to finders 255 

Holyday on 255 

Home, on finding of 255 

how fastened anciently 252 

humorous story of 258 

imperfectly fastened 251 

in Egypt 251 

in England, introduced by 
William, the Conqueror . . . 253 

in Ethiopia 251 

in Japan 251 

in Tartary 251 

London held by the corpora- 
tion by payment of 254 

mentioned by Emperor Leo. . 252 

Mithridates' lack of 252 

nails for, most ancient 253 

not common amongst the 

Greeks and Romans 251 

number to be seen in London. 257 

of felt 255 

of gold, Poppsea's 249 

of iron, first used by Thes- 

salonians 252 

of leather 251 

of silver, Duke Boniface's. . .249 

Nero's 249 

piece of one worn by Charle- 
magne's horse 253 



Horse-shoe:, used by Canaan- 

ites ". 250 

Vespasian, delayed by 252 

Horses, not known to Aztec3...213 

Hot cross buns, see Buns. 

Hudibras, see Butler. 

Hugo, Victor, his Les !Miser- 
ables, an incentive to study 
of Napoleoniana 32 

Humphreys, H. N., his History 
of the Art of Printing. .47, 48 

Huntingdon, see Henry of. 

Huriy, Lubbock on 364 

IDLER, The 60 

A Idylls of the King, see Ten- 
nyson. 

Image-Books, see Block-Books. 

Imitation, danger of blind 26 

Imitation of Christ, Of the 

147, 321 
see also Kempis. 

Imperial Library (Russian), 
and Codex Sinaiticus 191 

Incidents of Travel, see 
Stephens. 

Index to persons and places in 
Morte Darthur 117 

Indexes, Lord Campbell on. . . . 15 

Indolent Essays, see Dowling. 

Inquisition in Portugal, estab- 
lished by John III 135 

Ireland, connection with Lost 
Tribes 6 

Iron, first used for horse-shoes.252 
not known to Aztecs 213 

Irving, Sir Henry, and Don 
Quixote 163 

Isle of Wight, origin of name . . 36 

JACOBS, Joseph, his edition 

J of Bidpai 293 

James I., and mourning for 

Prince Henry 268 

Japan, horse-shoes in 251 

Japanese mourning customs . . 264 
Jehoash, his fable. Thistle and 

the Cedar 289 

Jeremiah, his residence in Ire- 
land 7 

his tomb 7 



INDEX. 



3YY 



Jeremiah, quoted concerning 

Zekekiah's daughter 7 

Jewish mourning customs . . . .261 
Jews, see Ten Lost Tribes. 
John III., of Portugal, colonizer 

of Brazil 135 

established Inquisition in 

Portugal 135 

manuscripts presented by him. 135 
Johnson, Margaret, reputed 

witch 275 

Johnson, Samuel, his criticism 

on feat of endurance 60 

his Rambler 57 

on Don Quixote 155 

on Pilgrim's Progress 155 

on Robinson Crusoe 155 

on Sir Thomas More 170 

Jones, Richard, his Growth of 

the Idylls, quoted llSn 

Joseph, identical with Lokman 

and iEsop 295 

Joseph of Arimathea, his use of 

the Grail 121 

Joshua, the causer of leap year. 79 
Jotham, his fable, Trees elect- 
ing a King 289 

Judith's Garden, see Basset. 
Julius Cfesar, see Shakespeare. 

Junius, Letters of 324 

Justin, quoted 288 

KABYLES, see Cabyles. 
Kalilah and Dimnah.292, 293 
Kean, Charles, his restoration 

of Shakespeare 361 

Keary, C. F., on Arthurian 

bibliography 119n 

Kempis, Thomas A', his Imita- 
tion 147, 323 

ascribed to Bonaventura . . 326 
ascribed to Chancellor Ger- 

son 327 

ascribed to John Gersen..326 
ascribed to Walton Hilton.328 

Cajetan on 327 

claimed by Augustine 

Order 324 

claimed by Benedictine 

Order 324 

his authorship disputed. . .324 
Marillae's edition 329 



Kempis, Thomas A', number of 

editions 148 

Renan on authorship of . . . 327 

Richelieu's edition 328 

testimonies to value of . . . 328 
Wheatley on authorship of.325 

his life 325 

his manuscripts 325 

Kenilworth, see Scott. 

Kenilworth Castle 352 

King Lear, see Shakespeare. 
Kingsborough, Lord, his An- 
tiquities of Mexico 209 

cost of 209 

key to tlie hieroglyphics. ..210 

Mendoza collection 210 

contents of 211 

indebtedness of Prescott 

to 212 

his hypothesis of Aztec an- 
cestry 214 

his interest in Mexican an- 
tiquities 210 

imprisoned for debt 210 

Koster, Lawrence, reputed 
printer of Biblia Pauperum. 48 
reputed inventor of mov- 
able types 48 

LACHRYMATORIES 262 
Laeroix, Paul, his Middle 

Ages 47 

Lacy, John, his Sawny the 
Scot, adapted from Shake- 
speare 361 

Lady of the Lake, see Scott. 

Laf ontaine, Jean, career of ... . 297 

his definition of a fable 287 

his indebtedness to Bidpai..293 

stories of 298 

Lamb, at Easter, Jewish origin 

of 282 

Lamb, Charles, on Coleridge. . .363 
Lancelot, see Morte Darthur. 
Lang, Andrew, his essay on 

Morte Darthur 117 

Laocoon, see Lessing. 

Laocoon group, as posed by 

Liibke 69 

as posed by Piranesi 69 

Byron on 69 



3Y8 



INDEX. 



Laocoon group, Leasing on ... . G9 

Thomson on 69 

Virgil on 69 

Last of the Barons, see Bulwer- 

Lytton. 
Laurentian Library, its Tacitus 

manuscripts 180 

Law against Lovers, see Dave- 

nant. 
Layamon, Arthurian legends in. 121 
Leaguer of Lathom, see Ains- 

worth. 
Leap Year, produced by Joshua. 79 
Leather, used for horse-shoes. .251 
Lectures, a library activity . . . 342 
Leechdoms Wortcunning and 

Star-craft 19 

Leith, see Forbes-Leith. 

Lenox Library, its editions of 

Pilgrim's Progress 152 

Leo, Emperor, his mention of 

horse-shoes 252 

Les Miserables, see Hugo. 
Lessing, G. E., his Laocoon — 69 
Leviathan, see Hobbes. 
Lewis, Sir G. C, his edition of 

Babrios 290 

Lewis, Taylor, on Bidpai 294 

Liberty, see Thomson. 
Libraries, classific ations of 

books in 346 

education fostered by 339 

Free, fiction, circulation of . . 345 

necessity for 339 

Plea for 339 

see also Philadelphia. 

similarity to a forest 

31,41,61,65 
their treatment of fiction .... 347 
Limoges porcelain, when first 

manufactured 128 

Literary methods, Bacon's 313 

Barnes' 312 

Bayle's 312 

Beaconsfield's 312 

Beranger's 313 

Burke's 313 

George Eliot's 314 

Goldsmith's 314 

Heame's 312 

Jane Austen's 313 



Literary methods. Miss Yonge's 312 

Pliny's 312 

Saint-Pierre's 313 

Southey's 312 

TroUope's 312 

Warren's 313 

Literary prolificness, Dumas'.. 3 11 

Scott's 313 

Vega's 313 

Literature, influenced by Don 

Quixote 161 

Little Jack Horner, and the 

Jews 8 

Liturgical Manuscbipts .... 133 

Book of Offices 138 

Common of the Apostles and 

Evangelists 141 

Dominicale 138 

executed with stencils 136 

Ferial Book 139, 140 

Graduale 140 

Psalterium 142 

Sancturale 137 

Seventeenth century. 142, 143, 144 

Sixteenth century 142 

Livy, his fable, Bellv and Mem- 
bers of the Body 296 

Llanearvan, Caradoc of, see 

Caradoc. 
Loch, Katrine, in Lady of the 

Lake 352 

Locke, John, his Civil Govern- 
ment 166 

Lokman. identified with .^sop 

and Joseph 295 

a mythical person 294 

Lollards, in Pecock's Repressor. 27 

rise of. in Fasciculi 35 

London, held by part payment 

of horse-.shoes 254 

Longfellow, H. W., his review 

of Twice Told Tales 359 

Lorenzo, San, of Genoa, custo- 
dian of the Grail 121 

Lorna Doone, see Blackmore. 
Lost Tribes, see Ten Lost Tribes. 
Loubat, Due de, his Mexican 

facsimiles 217 

Louis XI., his assumption of 

mourning 267 

Louis XV., acquisition of 
Sfevres Porcelain factory.. .130 



379 



Lubbock, Sir John, his Hundred 

Books, Ruskin on 173 

on hurry 364 

Lubke, his pose of the Laocoon 
group 69 

Lunacy, cure for 21 

Lycians, disapproval of mourn- 
ing 264 

MACAULAY, Lord, his attack 
on Walpole 242 

on Holy War 151 

on Pilgrim's Progress. ..150, 151 
Macbeth, see Shakespeare. 
McMaster, J. B., on Franklin's 

Autobiography 176 

Malmesbury, see William of. 
Malory, Sir Thomas, compiler, 

not author 118 

his Morte Darthur 115 

Man in the moon, see Moon. 
Manasseh, Americans lost tribe 

of 6 

Manchester, Public Library, its 

Earl Spencer's collection. . 116 
Manners, influenced by Don 

Quixote 161 

old-time books on 80 

Manriquez, Pedro, on author- 
ship of the Imitation 326 

Manuel a I'Amateur d'Es- 

tampes, see Dutuit 48 

Manuscripts, Liturgical, see 

Liturgical Manuscripts. 
Map, Walter, his claims not 

disproven 121n 

his introduction of the Grail 
and Lancelot into Morte 

Darthur 121 

Maquet, Dumas' assistant 314 

Marble Faun, see Hawthorne. 
Marcellus, Pope, on Palestrina's 

Papse Marcelli 305 

Mareschal, Walter, and horse- 
shoes 254 

Margaret, St., her Book of the 

Gospels 233 

edited by Fr. W. Forbes- 

Leith 233 

how identified 234 

loss and recovery of 234 

price paid for 234 



Margaret, St., Prof. Westwood 
on 233 

Marie Antoinette Romances, see 
Dumas. 

Marillae, M. de, his edition of 
the Imitation 329 

Mariner's Chronicle 336 

Mark's, Saint, see Saint Mark's. 

Marriage, Aztec ceremonies. . . . 223 
Aztec customs and cere- 
monies 212 

Aztec laws 214 

on Fridays 277 

Sir Thomas More's remark 
on 168 

Marriage a la Mode, see Ho- 
garth. 

Marriage of the Arts, see Holy- 
day. 

Marseilles, foundation of 288 

Mary, Queen of Scots, in The 
Abbot 352 

Mass, parts not sung by priests 
or choir 136 

Massinger, Philip, his The Guar- 
dian, indebtedness to Bid- 
pai 293 

Mastee of the Rolls Series. . 11 
see also Early Chronicles. 

Mather, Cotton, his misdirected 
earnestness 357 

Matsys, Quentin, story of 131 

Measure forMeasure, see Shake- 
speare. 

Meaux, Abbey of, see Melsa. 

Meissen, porcelain factory at . . 128 

Melsa, Monastery of 34 

Memling, miniatures attributed 
to ." 229 

Memoirs, tedious, satire on, in 
The Spectator 56 

Men, duty of 79 

Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Felix, 
in Charles Auchester 352 

Mendoza collection, see Kings- 
borough. 

Menenius Agrippa, his fable, 
Belly and the Members of 
the Body 296 

Menisci, source of belief in 
horse-shoes 257 



380 



Mercy, absent from the Ham- 
murabi Code 91 

MeuseljOn Nuremberg Chronicle 37 

Mexican Antiquities 207 

Mexican names, pronunciation 

of 211 

Middle Ages, see Lacroix. 
Migration of Fables, see Miiller. 
Milk, cows', not known to Az- 
tecs 213 

Milton, John, earnestness of. . .301 

his Paradise Lost 302 

editions of 302 

Mirza, Vision of 57 

Missa Papse Marcelli, see Pales- 

trina. 
Mitford, A. B., his Tales of Old 

Japan, quoted 264 

Mithridates, his lack of horse- 
shoes 252 

Modern Telemachus, see Yonge. 
Moliere, J. B. P., his Cheats of 
Scapin, drawn from Ter- 
ence 188 

Monastic life, symbolized by tlie 

oyster 20 

Monday, vmluckiness of 277 

Monmouth, see GeolTrey of. 
Moon, Man in the, earliest ref- 
erence to 25 

More, Sir Thomas, beatification 

of 172 

debt of English prose to. . . . 170 

education of 108 

friendship with Dean Colet. .108 
friendship with Erasmus.. . . 108 
his creation of the word 

Utopia 171 

his remark on marriage 108 

his second marriage 109 

his selection of a bride 168 

his Utopia 100 

Craik, Henry, on 109 

editions of 170 

trusts, evils of, fore- 
shadowed in 107 

views embodied in 107 

works inspired by lOG 

Holbein's picture of 172 

humor of 109 

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, on. . . .170 
persecuted by Henry VIII. ..167 



More, Sir Thomas, positions 

held by 170 

public veneration of 172 

Morel li, Giacomo, on Grimani's 

Breviary 227 

Morgan, M. de, discoverer of 

the Hammurabi code 90 

Morpurgo, Dr. Sal, and Gri- 
mani's Breviary 229 

Morris, William, his Erewhon.166 
his Defense of Guenevere, 
drawn from MorteDarthur.118 
]\Iortality, see Deaths. 
Morte Darthur, added to by 

Lavamon '. 121 

added to by Wace 120, 121 

Andrew Lang's essay on.... 117 
Ascliam's charge of immo- 
rality in 117 

bibliography of, C. F. Keary. 

on 119n 

Caxton's fir.st edition of 115 

claims of Borron and Troyes 

disregarded 12 In 

Dr. Sommer's edition 113 

gleaning ground for poets. . .118 
growth of legend, Richard 

Jones on, quoted llSn 

Holy Grail, history of the 

cup 121 

introduced by Map 121 

present custodian of 121 

in Geoffrey of IMonmouth .... 120 
index to persons and places 

in 117 

influence on Bunyan 122 

Lancelot, introduced by Map. 121 

true to nature 122 

legend preserved inArmorica. 

Wales and Cornwall 119 

portrayal of Henry II 122 

Sir Walter Scott on 117 

the English epic 118 

the Round Table, preserved 

at Winchester 120 

introduced 120 

Wynkyn de Worde's edition. 116 
INIorton. INIanor of. held by part 

payment of horse-shoes . . . 253 
Mosaic code, its difference to the 
Hammurabi code 92 



'INDEX. 



381 



Moses, his authorship of Penta- 
teuch disputed 323 

ignorant of the Hammurabi 

code 92 

Motte, De la, his definition of 

a fable 287 

Mourning 259 

Arabian customs 264 

assumed by Henry VIII. for 

Anne Boleyn 268 

assumed without grief by 

Louis XI 267 

black-edged paper, use of . . . .271 
black sealing wax, use of . . . .271 

Byzantine customs 264 

Chinese customs 262 

colours, in China 262 

in France 266 

in Spain 266 

in various countries 265 

Japanese 264 

Roman 263 

significance of 266 

exaggeration of 272 

extravagance in 269 

Fijian customs 265 

forbidden by James I., for 

Prince Henry 268 

graduation of 268 

Greek customs 263 

in Bride of Lanimermoor. ...269 

Japanese customs 264 

Jewish customs 261 

Lycian disapprobation of . ... 264 
Numa Pompilius' edict on . . . 263 

Persian customs 265 

Pope on 268 

Roman customs 263 

Sandwich Island customs. . ..265 

Syrian customs 265 

see also Funerals. 
Much Ado about Nothing, see 

Shakespeare. 
Miihlbach, Louise, her Andreas 

Hofer 352 

Mules, shoes for, see Horse- 
shoes. 
Miiller, Max, his Migration of 

Fables 299 

quoted 292 

Music, forbidden at Haverford 
College Ill 



Myrrour, see Caxton. 

Mythology, on visiting cards . . 243 

NAILS, for fastening horse- 
shoes, see Horse-shoes. 

finger, cutting of 281 

Del Rio on cutting of 281 

Napoleon I., his use of a play- 
ing card 242 

Napoleoniana, study of, induced 
by Shadow of the Sword . . 32 
by Les Miserables 32 

Nasturtium, application of in 
cases of baldness 20 

Natural History, see Neckam. 
see also Pliny. 

Neapolitans, Friday supersti- 
tions of 277 

Neckam, Alexander, his Natural 

History, botany in 45 

pun on name of 23 

works of 23 

works to consult in connec- 
tion with 24 

Nennius 119 

Nero, his mules shod with 
silver 249 

Netter, Thomas, Fasciculi, as- 
cribed to 35n 

New Atlantis, see Bacon. 

New Voyage, see Defoe. 

Newberry, John, Goldsmith's 

comment on 84 

his advertising devices 84 

original of Dr. Primrose in 
Vicar of Wakefield 84 

Newspapers, created by the es- 
sayists 53 

Newton, Isaac, visiting cards of .240 

Nezahualcoyotl, King, life of, 
similar to King David's.. 214 

Nezahualpilli, King, life of . . . .215 

Noah, the Aztec Cox-Cox 214 

No-Popery Riots, in Barnaby 
Rudge 352 

Nonnes Preestes Tale, see 
Chaucer. 

Nord, Comtesse du, porcelain 
table of 131 

Northampton, City of, held by 
payment of horse-shoes .... 253 



Northumberland family, visit- 
ing cards of 240 

Nose, length of, undoing of a 

princess 27 

ornament, Aztec, denoting 
chieftainship 223 

Novel, taken from old chroni- 
cles 35 

Novels, see Fiction. 

Noyes, Rev., his misdirected 
earnestness 357 

Numa Pompilius, his edict on 
mourning 263 

Nunez, Bishop, on origin of 
Aztecs 213 

Nuremberg Chronicle, Dibdin 

on 37 

insufficiently indexed 14n 

Meusel on 37 

source of Southey's Old 
woman of Berkeley 38 

Nursery rhymes, history in ... . 7 

NuTTAix Codex, The 219 

size and character 221 

Nuttall, Zelia, editress of Nut- 
tall Codex 221 

OAKHAM, Seat of Earl Fer- 
rers, horse-shoes levied at.253 

Observer, The 60 

Oceana, see Harrington. 

Of the Imitation of Christ. . . 

147, 321 
see also Kempis. 

Offices, Book of, manuscript. . .138 

Oil, illuminating, not known to 
Aztecs 213 

Old and New Testaments, see 
History of. 

Old Woman and her Cats, see 
Gay. 

Old Woman of Berkeley, see 
Southey. 

Ongania, Ferdinand, his Basil- 
ica di San Marco 97 

Opus Minus, see Bacon. 

Opus Tertium, see Bacon. 

Orbicularis, cure for stomach- 
ache and baldness 20 

Oriental Carpets 69 

Orseoli Doge Pietro, disposal 
of his bones 102 



Orseoli Doge Pietro, his res- 
toration of St. Mark's, 
Venice 101 

Our Race, see Totten. 

Overbury, Sir Thomas, on Fri- 
day dreams 276 

Oxford, Lord, Robinson Crusoe 
ascribed to 160 

Oyster, symbolical of monastic 
life 25 

P\GAN, Mattio, engraving by. 100 
Paine, John, backer of The 
Rambler 57 

Pala d'Oro, of Saint Mark's, 

Venice 99 

restorations of 100 

Palestrina, Igino 307 

Palestrina, P. da, his Assumpta 

est Maria 308 

his Missa Papae Marcelli, 

Baini on 305 

Parvi on 305 

Pember on 305 

work of 307 

Palestkina's Music 303 

Palm Sunday procession, of the 
Doge in Venice 100 

Pantchatantra 291 

Papse Marcelli, Missa, see Pales- 
trina. 

Paper, black-edged, used in 
mourning 271 

Paradise Lost, see Milton. 

Paris, Paulin, on Calenius' 
manuscript 120 

Parsley sown on Good Friday. .283 

Parvi. and the Missa Papa; 
Marcelli 305 

Pascal, Blaise, his definition of 
earnestness 358 

Paston, John, his funeral 269 

Paston Letters 269 

Paul, St., his Epistle to the 
Hebrews, authorship dis- 
puted 323 

Pecock, Reginald, his Repressor, 
on the Lollards 27 

Pember, E. H., on the Missa 
Papse ^Marcelli 305 

Penology, studv of induced by 
His" Natural Life 32 



383 



Pentateuch of Printing, see 

Blades. 
Perdicaris case, parallel to ... . 335 
Permanence, how attained, see 

Earnestness. 
Persia, Shah of, Friday super- 
stitions 277 

Persian mourning customs .... 265 
Persilis and Sigismunda, see 
Cervantes. 

Phffidrus 297 

his Fables 297 

drawn from ^sop 297 

Phelps, Samuel, his restoration 

of Shakespeare 361 

Philadelphia Free Library of, 

The, Carnegie gift 341 

growth of 31, 341 

its collection of Liturgical 

Manuscripts 135 

its facsimile of Grimani's 

Breviary 227 

its Mexican fac-similes 217 

lectures delivered by 342 

Wanamaker, John, his gift 

to 341 

Widener, P. A. B., his gift to.341 
Philadelphia Library ( Com- 
pany), founded by Frank- 
lin 176 

Pie, at Haverford College 110 

Pilate, his use of the Grail. . . . 121 

Pilgeim's Peogress, The 150 

see also Bunyan. 
Piranesi, the elder, admired by 

Coleridge 67 

De Quincey, on 67 

his Laocoon group 69 

his plates of Trajan's column 68 

Piranesi, the younger 67 

Pisans, receive the Grail from 

Genoese 121 

Playing cards, first visiting 

cards 239 

introduced from the East ... 46 
substituted for royal commis- 
sion 244 

use of by Napoleon 1 242 

used to identify ropes on 

board ship 243 

Plea fob Fkee Libbaejes, A . . 337 



Pliny, the elder, his literary 

methods 312 

his-Natural History, botany in 45 

quoted 249 

Pliny, the younger, his friend- 
ship with Tacitus. . 179 

Poe, E. A., on Robinson Crusoe.159 

Poem, longest English 313 

Polyglot Psaltee, A 71 

Pompadour, Mme. de, her paint- 
ing of porcelain 130 

her porcelain flowers 131 

' interest in porcelain manu- 
facture 130 

Pope, Abby E., her copy of 

Morte Darthur 116 

Pope, Alexander, in Devereux. . 350 

on mourning 268 

Poppsea, her beasts shod with 

gold 249 

Porcelain, Dresden, made at 

Meissen 128 

introduced from China into 

Europe by Venetians 127 

kaolin for, discovered 128 

Limoges, date of first manu- 
facture 128 

Sfevres 66 

carriage of Mile. Beaupr&.129 

collectors of 66 

dates of styles 128 

factory acquired by Louis 

XV 130 

flowers of 131 

fraudulent 129 

manufacture encouraged by 

Mme. de Pompadour .... 130 
manufacture of, under royal 

patronage 129 

old, dates of 128 

painted by Mme. de Pom- 
padour 130 

presented to Louis XVIII.. 129 
service of, belonging to 

Catherine II 131 

table of the Comtesse du 

Nord 131 

uses to which put 129 

Porpora, Niccola, in Consuelo..352 
Porter, Jane, her Scottish 
Chiefs 352 



384 



INDEX. 



Portsmouth, origin of name ... 36 
Portvigal, establishment of In- 
quisition in 135 

pictorial art of 135 

Preachers, satire on 81 

Premiums given with books .... 85 
Prescott, W. H., his indebted- 
ness to the Mendoza collec- 
tion 212 

Primrose, Dr., original of 84 

Printing, Commencement of, see 

Anfange. 
Procession of the Doge, of 

Venice, on Palm Sunday.. 100 
Providence Displayed, see Sel- 
kirk. 

PsALTEE, A Polyglot 71 

Psalterium, manuscript 142 

Psyche, longest English poem. 313 

Pun, on name of Neekam 23 

Puritanism, effect on children. . 83 

QUACK medicines. Good Fri- 
day bread 283 

remedies 19 

Quakers, founders of Haverford 

College 108 

Querard, M., his charge against 
Dumas 314 

RAMBLER, The 57 
Redemption, Aztec version.214 

Reflections, quoted 25(3 

Reichenbach, Dr., his life and 

will 42 

Reichenbachia, see Sander. 
Relics, of Doge Orseoli, custodv 

of ".102 

Renan, Ernest, on authorship 

of the Imitation 327 

Repressor, see Pecock. 
Review, The, see Defoe. 
Rhetoric, Caxton's definition of. 82 
Richelieu, Cardinal, his edition 

of the Imitation 328 

Rienzi, see Bulwer-Lytton. 
Rienzi, Tribune, in Rienzi ... .352 
Rio, see Del Rio. 
Rivals, see Davenant. 

Robinson Crusoe 155 

see also Defoe. 
Romance, limitations of old...lG4 



Romans, horse-shoes not com- 
mon amongst 251 

mourning customs of 263 

Rome, described in ]Marble 
Faun 349 

Romola, see Eliot. 

Round Table, see ^lorte 
Darthur. 

Rousseau, J. J., on Robinson 
Crusoe 159 

Ruskin, John, on Lubbock's 

Hundred Books 173 

on Utopianism 171 

Russell, W. P., his Verbotomy, 

quoted 82 

Russians, their shoes for dogs. .252 

SAILORS, their Friday super- 
stitions 279 

Saint Margaret's Book of 

THE Gospels 231 

Saint Mark's, Venice 95 

injured by fire and pillage.. 101 

Pala d'Oro 99 

restored by Doge Pietro 

Orseoli 101 

Saint-Pierre, B. de, his literary 

methods 313 

Saintsbury, Prof., his Flourish- 
ing of Romance, quoted.. 12 In 
Salvini, Tomaso, on earnest- 
ness 362 

Sanctuary, violation of privilege 

of 101 

Saneturale, manuscript 137 

Sand. George, her Consuelo 352 

Sander, Frederick, his Reichen- 
bachia 42 

Sandwich Islands, mourning 

customs 265 

Savonarola, in Romola 350 

Sawny the Scot, see Lacy. 
Scarlet Letter, see Ha^vthorne. 
Schole INIaster. sec Ascham. 
School-books, in monastic days. 78 

School-extension lectures 342 

Schools, caning in 80 

cor])oral punishment in 81 

in dnvs of Elizabeth 79 

Scott, Sir Walter, his Abbot. . .352 
his Bride of Lammernioor, 
mourning in 269 



INDEX. 



385 



Scott, Sir Walter, his Kenil- 

worth 352 

his Lady of the Lake 352 

his literary prolificness 313 

on Cervantes 163 

on Morte Darthur 117 

on Robinson Crusoe 155 

Scottish Chiefs, see Porter. 
Sealing-wax, black, used in 

mourning 271 

Sedgwick, H. D., on Don 

Quixote 164 

Self Help, see Smiles. 
Selkirk, Alexander, his adven- 
tures ...157n 

his Providence Displayed. . . .157 
not original of Robinson 

Crusoe 157 

SfevEES Porcelain 125 

see also Porcelain. 
S&vres, Soft Porcelain of, see 

Gamier. 
Shadow of the Sword, see Buch- 
anan. 
Shah Nameh, see Firdausi. 

ire, William, earnest- 
ness of 360 

his authorship disputed 323 

his Hamlet, Dumas' ending 

to 315 

his Julius Caesar adapted. .36 In 

his King Lear, quoted 255 

his Macbeth adapted 361 

his Measure for Measure, 

adapted 360 

his Much Ado about Nothing, 

adapted 360 

his plays, mutilation of 360 

restored by Kean and 

Phelps 361 

his Taming of the Shrew, 

adapted 361 

his Tempest, adapted 361 

his Two Noble Kinsmen, 

adapted 361n 

Sheba, Queen of, presented with 

the Grail 121 

Sheppard, E. M., her Charles 

Auchester 352 

Shoemaker and ape, story of . . 26 
Shoes, for mules, see Horse- 



Shoes, for mules, see also 
Asses, shoes for. 
see also Camels, shoes for. 
see also Dogs, shoes for. 
see also Horse-shoes. 

Silver, horse-shoes of 249 

Six "Greatest Books" 145 

Smiles, Samuel, his Self Help..359 

on Herschel 359 

Smyth, A. H., his edition of 

Franklin 176n 

Socrates, his verse form of 

^sop 297 

Soft Porcelain of Sfevres, see 

Gamier. 
Solitary Summer, see Arnim. 
Solomon, original owner of the 

Grail 121 

Sommer, Dr. H. 0., his edition 

of Morte Darthur 113 

Sptheran, E. H., publisher of 

Reichenbachia 42 

Southey, Robert, his literary 

methods 312 

his Old Woman of Berkeley, 

source of 38 

Spaniards, their Friday super- 
stitions 277 

Spanish mourning colours 266 

Spectator, The 56 

Coverley, Sir Roger de, au- 
thors of 56 

reason of his death 56 

Thackeray's comment on . . 56 
satire on tedious memoirs ... 56 

Vision of Mirza 57 

Spencer, Earl, his copy of Morte 

Darthur 115 

location of his collection. . . .116 
Spenser, Edmund, his Faerie 
Queene,and Morte Darthur. 118 

Spineto, Marquis 212 

Square Friend, The 108 

Steele, Sir Richard, his reck- 
lessness 54 

his service to journalism. ... 54 

his Tatler 54 

in Devereux 55, 350 

in Henry Esmond 56 

Stencils, manuscript executed 
with 136 



Stephens, J. L., his Incidents 

of Travel 216 

his Travels 216 

Stesichorus, his fable Horse 
and the Stag 296 

Stomach-ache, cure for 283 

orbicularis, a cure for 20 

Stonesfield, pretty funeral cus- 
tom 271 

Suetonius, quoted 249 

Sutherland, W., his Handbook 
of Alpine flowers 45 

Swift, Dean, in Devereux 350 

Swinburne, Algernon, his Trys- 
tram of Lyonesse, source 
of 118 

Syrian mourning customs 265 

TACITUS, Facsimiles of 179 
his Annals, Dibdin, T. F., 

on 180 

edited by Beroaldo 180 

his friendship with Pliny... 179 

his proenomen 180 

Medicean codices of 179 

scope of 179 

Taffie was a Welshman, his- 
torical significance of 8 

Tale of Two Cities, see Dickens. 
Tales of Old Japan, see Mit- 

ford. 
Taming of the Shrew, see 
Shakespeare. 

Tartary, horse-shoes in 251 

Tatler, The, criticism of biblio- 
maniacs 55 

designed by Steele 54 

Tom Folio on 55 

Taylor, publisher of Robinson 

Crusoe 160 

Tea Tephi, daughter ofZedekiah 7 
Tears, easily shed by Eastern 

peoples 262 

Telescope, dispute as to Aztec 

knowledge of 216 

Tempest, The, see Shakespeare. 

Ten Lost Tribes, The 1 

Anglo Saxons descended from 4 

Aztecs descended from 213 

see also Totten. 
Ten Years Later, see Dumas. 



Tennyson. Lord, his Idylls of 

the King 118 

Terence, facsimiles of 185 

his authorship questioned ... 187 
his Heauton-timoroumenos. .188 
his manuscripts, illustrations 

in 185 

his Phormio illustrations to. 188 
his works, debt of modern 

dramatists to 187 

Mme. Dacier on 187 

portrait of 186 

Text of the Bible, The 189 

Thackeray, W. M., his Henry 
Esmond, introduces Steele 

and Addison 56 

on Dumas 319 

on Sir Roger de Coverley .... 54 
Thecla, St., alleged scribe of 

Codex Alexandrinus 194 

Thessalonians. first to use iron 

horse-shoes 252 

Thomas, St., in Anahuac 214 

tradition of, similar to 

Elijah 214 

Thomson, James, his Liberty, 

on Laocoon group 69 

Thornton. Bonnell, joint editor 

of The Connoisseur 59 

Tliree Musketeers 318, 351 

Thymage, see Caxton. 
Tinted Venus, see Anstey. 
Tischendorf, Constantine, his 
discovery of Codex Sinaiti- 

cus . . ." 200 

Tonson, Jacob, publisher of 

Milton 362 

quarrel of 57 

Totten. C. A. L., his Our Race. 3 
Anglo-Saxons the Lost 

Tribes 4 

Lost Tribes in nursery 

rhymes 7 

wanderings of 4 

Toxophilus, see Ascham. 

Trajan, column of 68 

Travels in Central America, see 

Stephens. 
Tristram and Iseult,see Arnold. 
Trollope, Anthony, his literary 
methods 312 



387 



Troyes, Chrestien de, his 
claims not reconcilable witli 
Map's 121n 

Trusts, declaimed against in 
Utopia 167 

Trystram of Lyonesse, see 
Swinburne. 

Twelve-Ollin, Aztec hero 222 

Twenty Years After 318, 351 

Twice Told Tales, see Haw- 
thorne. 

Two Noble Kinsmen, see Shake- 
speare. 

Types, movable, reputed in- 
ventor of 48 

Typographical Antiquities 77 

ULYS&ES, the inventor of 
chess 26 

Uncial writing, described 193 

University-extension lectures. . . 342 
Uranus, discovered by Herschel.359 

Utopia 166 

see also More. 

Utopian works 166 

Utopianism, Burton, Richard, 

on 171 

Ruskin, John, on 171 

VALUE OF Reading Fiction, 
The 343 

Van Diemen's Land, penal con- 
dition of in His Natural 
Life 32 

Vatican, its Codex Vatieanus. .191 

Vega, Lope de, his literary pro- 
lificness 313 

Vegetius, quoted 250 

Venables, Canon Edmund, on 

Holy War 151 

on Pilgrim's Progress 151 

Venetians, introducers of porce- 
lain into Europe 127 

Venice, Palm Sunday procession 

of the Doge 100 

St. Mark's, see Saint Mark's. 

Verbotomy, see Russell. 

Vergil, Polydore, on Geoffrey of 
Monmouth 119 

Verne, Jules, his Hector Serva- 
dac, comets in 350 



Vespasian, delayed by horse- 
shoes 252 

Vicar of Wakefield, see Gold- 
smith. 
Vicomte de Bragelonne. .. .318, 351 
Vida y Hechos, see Columbus. 
Vidal, Sr. Domingo and brother, 
editors of Flora de Fili- 

pinas 45 

Vincennes, porcelain manufac- 
ture at 130 

Virgil, his ^neid, on Laocoon 

group 69 

Vision of Mirza 57 

Visiting Cabds 237 

a modem invention 239 

Adam Bartsch's 242 

busts on 243 

Canova's 241 

Casanova's designs for 242 

Comtesses de Windischgratz's.243 

Count Drakslaw's 243 

dogs on 242 

German ...243 

in Hogarth's Marriage a la 

Mode 240 

Isaac Newton's 240 

Italian 243 

landscapes on 242 

messages on 239 

mythological subjects on. . . .243 
Northumberland family's . . . 240 
originally worn playing cards.239 

the Miss Berrys' 241 

verses on 241 

Votan, founder of Aztec nation.213 
present at Tower of Babel. . .213 
Vries, Dr. S. G. de, editor of 
Grimani's Breviary 227 

WAGE, his History of the 
Britons, Arthurian 
legends in 120, 121 

Wales, Arthurian legends in. . .119 

Wallace, William, in Scottish 
Chiefs 352 

Walpole, Robert, defended by 
the Miss Berrys 242 

Wanamaker, John, and The 
Free Library of Philadel- 
phia 341 



Warren, Samuel, speed of com- 
position 313 

Waterwort, specific for bald- 
headed suitors 19 

specific for ladies' beauty .... 19 

Watts, Dr., error falsely at- 
tributed to 84 

Wesley, Samuel, his History of 
the Old and New Testament 
in verse 83 

Westwood, Prof., on St. Mar- 
garet's Book of the Gospels.233 

Wheatley, L. A., on authorship 
of the Imitation 325 

White Wings, see Black. 

Whole Duty of Man 149 

Widener, P. A. B., and The 
Free Library of Philadel- 
phia 341 

Wight, see Isle of Wight. 

William of Malmesbury 120 

William, the Conqueror, his in- 
troduction of horse-shoes 
into England 253 

Williams, his Window Garden- 
ing 45 

Winchester, the Round Table at. 120 

Windischgratz, Comtesses de, 
visiting cards of 243 

Window Gardening, see Wil- 
liams. 

Wine, at funer?ils 269 



Witchcraft, stupidity about its 
suppression 357 

Witches, activity on Good Fri- 
day 275 

charms against 275 

horse - shoes protection 

against 256 

Johnson, Margaret, confes- 
sion of 275 

Witts, de. see De Witts. 

Women, duty of 79 

Women Pleased, see Beaumont 
and Fletcher. 

Woodcuts, as portraits of vari- 
ous persons 37 

Worde, Wynkyn de. his edition 
of Morte Darthur 116 

W^orld, The 58 

Wotan, see Votan. 

Wren, the king of birds 25 

Wyclif's Fasciculi, see Fasci- 
culi. 

YONGE, C. M., her literary 
methods 312 

her Modem Telemachus, 
source of 336 

ZAIN, Doge Pietro, restorer 
of the Pala d'Oro 100 

Zenophon, quoted 260 

Zouche. Lord, his Mexican 
Codex 221 



NOV 28 1905 



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